Arrested were Nicholas Fey, 38, of Bellmore; Charles Cobbs, 44, of St. Albans, Queens; and Christopher Galanis, 38, of Bethpage. According to Dillon, the three contractors allegedly took advantage of day laborers in Nassau County by promising to pay $100 to $200 for their work, but only made partial payments or no payments to the workers.
Dillon said Fey owns and operates A-1 Construction, which provides home-improvement work such as siding, windows and roof repairs. Cobbs owns and operates Cobbs Construction, which does cement work such as driveways, patios, brick and stone work. And Galanis owns and operates CWG Landscaping Inc., which provides landscaping to private homes.
"My office investigated these cases with the assistance of the Workplace Project in Hempstead," said Dillon. "The Workplace Project in Hempstead is a non-profit organization that helps Spanish-speaking members of the community. With their assistance, we were able to investigate the many allegations of non- or partial-payments on behalf of the hard-working victims who were cheated out of their earned pay. The Workplace Project did an excellent job in protecting the members of the Spanish-speaking community that fell victim to the defendants in these cases."
Fey, Cobbs and Galanis were charged with failure to pay wages according to Labor Law. Cobbs and Galanis were also charged with operating a home-improvement business without a license.
