Builder bigs nailed for stiffing workers

A BRONX construction company has agreed to pay $500,000 in back wages after stiffing nonunion laborers on a city-funded affordable housing project for nearly a year.

A Bronx Supreme Court Judge Steven Barrett ordered four top Applied Construction executives to repay 20 workers following a guilty plea in November of scheming to defraud, a felony.

“Development of affordable housing is critical for New York City, but it must be done with contractors and subcontractors who follow the law and pay their workers properly,” said state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

In 2011, Applied Construction scored a contract with the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development to renovate 2865 Kingsbridge Terrace in Kingsbridge, officials said.

Applied Construction owner Mohammad Riaz, 35, agreed to pay workers at least $8 an hour plus health benefits as they installed new windows and repaired the facade of the 105-unit Mitchell-Lama co-op building, officials said.

But instead of honoring the contract, Riaz, his manager Mohammad Arshad, 40, and foremen Zbigniew Lakomiec, 59, and Socrates “Tony” Carrera, 39, colluded to pay their non-union workers up to $20 an hour — without benefits.

They concealed the scheme by paying some workers what they were entitled to and forcing them to kick some of it back, according to charges filed by Schneiderman’s office.

The executives paid some workers in cash and left out others in payroll reports to the city.

HPD officials tipped off the Attorney General’s office after noticing irregularities in compliance paperwork.

“Today’s sentencing sends an unambiguous message to any contractor that would cheat its employees,” said HPD Commissioner Vicki Been in a prepared statement.

All four of the men have been barred from working on public construction projects for the next five years.

No one answered the phone listed for Applied Construction Tuesday.