The Glenn O. Hawbaker Company pled to and was sentenced this afternoon for violations of Federal and State laws in the misappropriation of funds related to workers’ benefits.
Under the terms of the plea, Hawbaker will pay restitution totaling $20,696,453 to 1,267 employees.
“That’s the amount they stole starting in 2015 leading up to 2018 when we began our investigation,” said Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro as he announced the plea agreement this afternoon.
Hawbaker pled to four felony counts of stealing wages from its workers. Shapiro said Hawbaker committed this theft by using money intended for prevailing wage workers’ retirement funds to contribute to retirement accounts for all Hawbaker employees – including the owners and executives. They were also charged with stealing funds intended for prevailing wage workers’ health and welfare benefits, and using them to subsidize the cost of the self-funded health insurance plan that covers all employees.
Shapiro said he company disguised its scheme by artificially inflating its costs by millions of dollars each year and claiming credit for prohibited costs.
Payments to the affected employees must be made within 120 days.
You can watch the full press conference at the Attorney General’s Twitter Page