Contractor Admits Stealing from Riverhead Workers
The co-owner of a construction company has admitted to his role in stealing benefits owed to union construction workers hired for a project at Pulaski Street Elementary School in Riverhead.
Edwin Hutzler, 57, of Bellport, who is a co-owner of Ronkonkoma-based Triple H Concrete Corp., pleaded guilty at Suffolk County court on August 4 to perjury in connection with the theft and is required to pay restitution to the General Building Laborers Local 66 Trust Fund.
“Workers deserve to be paid what they’re owed for the work they do; it’s that simple,” Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini said. “It is illegal – and frankly immoral — for a company to steal those funds and turn a profit off the backs of workers.”
The company and Edwin’s 85-year-old father Frederick Hutzler, who’s also a co-owner, previously pleaded guilty to grand larceny and were sentenced October 6 to five years of probation.
Prosecutors said Triple H Concrete Corp. employed 23 members of General Building Laborers Local 66 on several public works construction projects in Suffolk but failed to remit $280,908.74 in supplemental benefits to the union’s trust fund on behalf of the employees between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2015. Additionally, Edwin signed a certified payroll submitted on a public works project at the school in Riverhead which he knew contained false information on August 16, 2016, authorities said.
Suffolk Judge Karen Kerr ordered the elder Hutzler and Triple H to pay $210,908.74 in restitution. The company was also fined $10,000. Edwin and his brother Frederick Hutzler each paid $35,000 in up-front restitution to the fund before they pleaded guilty.
As a result of the convictions, Triple H Concrete Corp. is barred from bidding on public works projects for five years. Edwin is scheduled to be sentenced on August 2, 2022.
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