Roofing Co. Owners Ordered to Pay $100,000 for Underreporting

Friday, November 20, 2015 | 0

Two owners of roofing companies in Massachusetts have been ordered to pay $100,000 for misrepresenting the number of their workers and paying them under the table in cash.

The two, Segunda N. Cungachi and Maria Algeria Munoz, both of Milford, have been placed on probation, on the condition they pay the money in full to two insurance companies.

If the defendants comply with the restitution order and all other terms of probation, prosecutors will ask that the charges be dismissed, Assistant Attorney General Geoffrey Wood told Judge James R. Lemire of Worcester Superior Court, the Milford Daily News reported.

Between 2008 and 2014, Cungachi and Munoz misrepresented the number of workers they employed at three roofing companies, and paid employees in cash, in order to reduce their workers' compensation insurance exposure, prosecutors said. The companies were Byron Construction, Nationwide Construction Corp. and First Nationwide Construction Corp.

Because of the intentional underreporting of payroll, the two avoided paying full workers' compensation insurance premiums potentially totaling $615,000, prosecutors alleged.

Two checks totaling $30,000 were paid by the defendants Wednesday as part of their restitution.

Under the restitution order, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. is to receive $67,000 and A.I.M. Mutual Insurance Companies is to be paid $33,000.

Wood told Judge Lemire he would move to terminate the defendants' probation early if full restitution is paid before Jan. 3, 2019.

The remaining $70,000 in restitution is to be paid quarterly, at a rate of at least $6,000 per quarter, beginning Jan. 1.