Loretto man gets 22 months for lying about employees wages

[Omaha Steve]

X post in Labor & GD

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/articles/loretto-man-gets-22-months-lying-about-employees-wages

March 25, 2015

LORETTO
United States Attorney Andrew M. Luger announced on March 3, 2015 the sentencing of JEFFERY JOHN PLZAK, 52, to 22 months in federal prison for felony false statements in connection with prevailing wage violations. PLZAK pleaded guilty on July 8, 2014, to one count of False Statements and was sentenced on March 3, 2015, before Judge Patrick J. Schiltz in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, Minn.

In addition to the 22-month prison sentence, PLZAK was ordered to pay over $240,000 in restitution, pay a fine, and was placed on one-year of supervised release to follow the prison term. In sentencing PLZAK, Judge Schiltz emphasized the impact of PLZAK’S crime on his employees and on PLZAK’S competitors and their employees, as well as the need to deter similar offenses by PLZAK and others in the future.

Said Mike Wilde of the Fair Contracting Foundation of Minnesota, "Construction workers, business competitors and taxpayers expect all public contractors to obey the law when doing business with public. The U.S. Attorneys Office does a great job in protecting fair competition. So does Minnesota’s Department of Transportation. A federal prison sentence is about the strongest deterrent imaginable for contractors who decide to cheat on public contracts."

According to the defendant's guilty plea and documents filed in court, PLZAK and his spouse run Honda Electric, Inc., a company based in Loretto, Minnesota. Honda Electric bids on construction projects, including highway and road projects, that are federally and state funded. Many of the projects PLZAK bid on required that Honda Electric pay its electricians and other laborers the prevailing wage rate.

FULL story at link.

[valerief]

1. Paid LESS THAN HALF. How Republican of this "job creator."

In fact, as PLZAK knew, in many instances employees were being paid less than half of the prevailing wage rate.