Thirty former employees recovered more than $28K after prosecutors accused a Queens cleaning company owner of failing to pay workers
QUEENS, N.Y. — More than two dozen former workers have received over $28K in stolen wages after a Queens cleaning company owner was convicted in a wage theft case that prosecutors said exploited employees out of money they had earned.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Tuesday that restitution totaling more than $28,000 was returned to 30 former employees connected to cleaning businesses operated by Christian Perez and his wife, Ines Perez Miranda.
Perez pleaded guilty in February to scheme to defraud in the first degree, grand larceny in the third degree and failure to pay wages in accordance with labor law.
He was sentenced in April to five years of probation and ordered to pay restitution.
Perez and Perez Miranda are also banned from incorporating new businesses in New York for five years.
Perez Miranda pleaded guilty to failure to pay wages in accordance with labor law and received a conditional discharge in February.
Prosecutors said the case was investigated by the Queens District Attorney’s Housing, Worker and Consumer Protection Bureau with assistance from the New York State Department of Labor and Worker’s Justice Project.
Katz said wage theft harms workers financially and personally while praising investigators and labor advocates involved in the case.
The New York State Department of Labor also credited the investigation with helping workers recover wages they were owed.
Worker’s Justice Project organizers said the outcome reflected the collective efforts of workers who came together to report the alleged abuse and seek restitution.
Authorities said the defendants were originally from Queens.
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Key Points
- Queens prosecutors returned more than $28K in stolen wages to workers
- Cleaning company owner sentenced to probation in wage theft case
- Defendants barred from creating new New York companies for five years
