Contractor Pleads Guilty in US Open Worker Ripoff

A Brooklyn contractor admitted Monday to exploiting its employees at professional golf’s 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage State Park.

SB Waterproofing, Inc. pleaded guilty in Nassau County Court to offering of a false instrument for filing. The company will pay $76,247 in restitution that will be dedicated to the workers that were not paid the prevailing rate of wage for their work at the park, according to Nassau prosecutors.

The company has also been slapped with a $500 fine and a five-year ban from doing any public work in the state of New York because state law mandates that contractors pay their workers a certain rate when performing government work. The firm was awarded the $432,690 contract to rebuild the conservatory and to strip and repaint the outside of the park’s clubhouse before the U.S. Golf Association’s U.S. Open. 

Each of the 17 people who worked for the company on the project told investigators that they were not paid the project’s prevailing wage of $58.94 per hour, prosecutors said. Some got paid below the prevailing rate while others did not get paid at all.

“For a company to steal from its employees is outrageous, and I will continue to use the power of the criminal justice system to give these workers a voice,” Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said in a statement.

Samuel Rieff, attorney for SB Waterproofing, was not immediately available for comment. A message left at the company’s office in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn was not returned.