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BJA Renovations Corp., a North Babylon-based asbestos removal and demolition company, and its manager, Joseph Demasco, 67, pleaded guilty to failing to pay more than $80,000 in required wages in Nassau County Court on Friday, March 14.
The wages were owed for work performed at schools in the Merrick and Oceanside Union Free School Districts between 2019 and 2021, according to the Nassau County DA’s office.
The company and its president, Nicholas Barnett, also admitted to falsifying unemployment insurance records, underreporting wages paid to employees, and defrauding the state’s unemployment fund out of more than $60,000.
BJA Renovations was hired as a subcontractor on multiple public school projects, including at Merrick’s Birch School, Chatterton School, and Levy Lakeside School in 2019, as well as Oceanside High School in 2021.
In both cases, certified payroll records falsely claimed that workers were being paid between $37 and $44 per hour, when they were actually receiving only $35 per hour in cash, sometimes supplemented by checks.
Under New York State prevailing wage laws, workers should have been paid up to $74.70 per hour, including benefits, prosecutors said.
Demasco and Barnett, who delivered the weekly payrolls at the job sites, admitted their role in the scheme. As part of the guilty plea, Demasco and BJA Renovations must repay $81,592 in stolen wages and $63,036 for the unemployment fraud.
Demasco is set to be sentenced in May, and faces up to three years in prison. However, if he pays $25,000 in restitution by sentencing, his punishment will be reduced to six months in jail and five years of probation.
Barnett pleaded guilty to misdemeanor labor law violations and is set to receive three years of probation at his sentencing next month.
Vice president Dana Petrizzo pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and received a conditional discharge.
BJA Renovations and its executives are barred from working on public projects for the next five years under state law.
“We do not tolerate companies that exploit their employees or deceive the public,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said. “These very employees showed up day in and day out, putting their health and safety at risk, only to be denied the wages and benefits they were entitled to.”
The New York State Department of Labor played a key role in the investigation, uncovering the wage theft and unemployment fraud, Donnelly’s office added.
“New York State has zero tolerance for those who cheat the Unemployment Insurance system or shortchange their workers,” said Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon.
BJA Renovations and its leadership were arrested in June 2024 following the investigation.
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