Westchester Insider: Westchester County District Attorney's Office: NEW ROCHELLE CONTRACTOR CONVICTED AND SENTENCED FOR FAILING TO PAY EIGHT WORKERS MORE THAN $31,500 IN WAGES.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 31, 2024. 

NEW ROCHELLE CONTRACTOR CONVICTED AND SENTENCED FOR FAILING TO PAY EIGHT WORKERS MORE THAN $31,500 IN WAGES.

DA’s Office Economic Crimes Bureau secured full restitution for eight victims.

 

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah announced today that a New Rochelle contractor who owned and operated Fuerte Construction LLC was convicted on eight misdemeanor counts of wage theft and sentenced to three years of probation and a $12,000 fine for failing to pay more than $31,500 to eight workers he employed between 2020 and 2023 as painters, carpenters and laborers.  

 

DA Rocah said: “Not paying workers for months on end is a crime and not a business model. We will continue to hold employers who commit wage theft accountable and that includes securing from them the full amount of backpay owed to workers. Additionally, I applaud the October 2023 law enacted by the state legislature that expands wage theft greater than $1,000 to be charged as a felony. This will aid in preventing and combating this pernicious problem that has dire consequences for working families and communities.” 

 

Artemio Fuerte, 38, of New Rochelle, was sentenced before Judge Eileen Songer-McCarthy today in New Rochelle City Court, following his guilty pleas on May 1 to six counts of Failure to Pay Wages and again on June 7 to two additional counts of Failure to Pay Wages.   

 

The defendant’s sentence includes a $1,500 fine on each of the eight counts totaling $12,000 to be paid through probation, which will run concurrent on all three of his cases. 

 

As part of his plea agreement, the defendant paid full restitution in the amount of $31,583 to the eight victims prior to sentencing. 

 

The Economic Crimes Bureau of the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office launched an investigation into the defendant and his business in 2022 after complaints were filed by individuals who did not get paid working for Mr. Fuerte. 

 

The DA’s Office Criminal Investigators Squad arrested the defendant on May 23, 2022 for failing to pay four workers a total of $21,150 between December 2020 and November 2021. Investigators arrested the defendant a second time on Oct. 14, 2022 for failing to pay two additional workers a total of $2,370 between March and August 2022, and arrested the defendant, a third time, on Jan. 30, 2024 for failing to pay two additional workers a total of $8,063 between November 2022 and February 2023.   

 

The District Attorney thanked workers’ rights advocates at St. John Bosco Parish-Don Bosco Workers in Port Chester, Catholic Charities Community Services-Archdiocese of New York in Yonkers, and United Community Center of Westchester in New Rochelle for assisting the victims with filing complaints with the DA’s Office. 

 

Victims and witnesses of wage theft and labor fraud, regardless of immigration status or language, can file a complaint directly with the DA’s Office at (914)995-TIPS (8477) or online at www.westchesterda.net. 

 

The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Emily Rowe-Smith of the Economic Crimes Bureau, with assistance from Forensic Accountant Michael Frenza, both of the Trials and Investigations Division.