Attorney General Letitia James and New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer announced the sentencings of Vickram Mangru, his wife Gayatri Mangru, and AVM Construction Corp., of Valley Stream, NY, for failing to pay proper prevailing wages to workers related to a publicly-funded New York City construction project.
The defendants were sentenced in Bronx County Supreme Court in front of Justice James A. McCarty.
Vickram Mangru will serve 30 days in jail, followed by three years of probation, after his felony conviction of Failure to Pay Prevailing Wages and Benefits.
Gaytari Mangru was sentenced to a Conditional Discharge as result of her misdemeanor conviction on the same charge.
The defendants both pled guilty to the charges on February 11, 2019, and have paid $80,000 in restitution to three workers. The remaining $201,630.09 was subject to an Order of restitution issued by the court.
In addition, all defendants will be prohibited from bidding on or being awarded any public works contract in the State of New York for a period of five years.
Between December 22, 2012 and February 14, 2015, Vickram Mangru, as owner of Vick Construction and operator of AVM Construction Corp., failed to pay several of his employees’ proper prevailing wages for construction and repair work on several public schools in the Bronx.
State law requires that on certain construction projects designated as “public works,” workers must be paid a pre-determined industry minimum wage per hour, plus a benefit rate, collectively known as a “prevailing wage rate.”
An investigation revealed that Mangru paid his workers between $120 and $160 a day for 40-50 hours worked per week.
To cover up the crime, he falsified payroll records submitted to the city Department of Education.
