A New Jersey man and his contracting company pleaded guilty to failing to pay their employees the prevailing wage, underpaying them by nearly $100,000.
Between November 25, 2019, and April 10, 2020, Geraldo DeAlmeida’s company, R&L Concrete, Inc., was a subcontractor at a public works project in the construction of the administrative building at the Longwood Central School District. The public works contract required DeAlmeida, through R&L Concrete, Inc., to properly list and classify his employees on certified payrolls and to pay them the statutory prevailing wage rate and supplemental benefits. Instead, DeAlmeida willfully misclassified his employees on the certified payroll to classifications that paid a lower wage rate.
In addition to failing to pay the required prevailing wage rate and benefits, multiple employees who were entitled to a wage rate that varied between $68 and $198 per hour were only paid between $22 to $25 per hour. The investigation also found that DeAlmeida completely omitted one employee working at the project from the certified payroll, in violation of the New York State Labor Laws.
On August 25, 2025, R&L Concrete Inc. pleaded guilty to one count of Willful Failure to Pay the Prevailing Wage and Supplement, a Class E felony, before Acting County Court Judge Edward J. Hennessey. DeAlmeida, 55, of South River, New Jersey, also pleaded guilty to Willful Failure to Pay the Prevailing Wage and Supplement, a Class A misdemeanor.
As a condition of the plea, the District Attorney’s Office required DeAlmeida and the corporation to pay $99,671 back to five employees from whom he withheld wages. Based on the felony conviction, R&L Concrete, Inc. is banned by the New York State Department of Labor from working on any additional public works projects in New York State for five years.
DeAlmeida and R&L Concrete, Inc. were the subjects of a separate but related settlement with the New York State Department of Labor regarding the same project, where they not only admitted to a willful violation for underpaying their employees but agreed to pay additional restitution back to their workers as part of the resolution.
“This conviction reaffirms my commitment to protecting workers’ rights by combating wage theft,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney. “It speaks to our dedication to the fight against anyone who would fraudulently and illegally fail to pay employees for their honest labor in Suffolk County.”