CLEARFIELD – A State College man facing a total of over 200 charges for underpaying workers entered a guilty plea to lesser charges Friday in Clearfield County Court.
Centre County contractor, Scott Cameron Good, 58, was charged after a grand jury investigation discovered he had underpaid his employees by more than $64,000 in wages and benefits for five years, according to a previous press release from Attorney General Josh Shapiro.
“The charges are the result of a 21-month State-wide Grand Jury investigation that originated from allegations of theft of wages and benefits from employees on a $16 million public works project in Clearfield County for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in 2014.”
The investigation found that Good and his company, Goodco Mechanical Inc. “violated prevailing wage laws by underpaying wages and claiming unlawful benefits credits on the Clearfield County PennDOT project, as well as other prevailing wage projects since at least 2010.”
On Friday before President Judge Fredric J. Ammerman, Senior Deputy Attorney General Patrick Schulte presented amended information on the case, charging Good with five misdemeanor counts of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds for his actions between Oct. 1, 2014 and March 17, 2019 in Clearfield, Blair, Centre, Huntingdon, Lycoming and Allegheny counties.
The first count includes the time period of Oct. 1, 2014 to Dec. 31, 2015, the second for 2016, the third for 2017, the fourth for 2018 and the fifth for Jan. 1, 2019 to March 17, 2019.
In a second case, Good’s company, Goodco Mechanical Inc. is also charged with theft by failure to make required disposition of funds for the time period of Oct. 1, 2014 to March 17, 2019.
As part of the agreement, Good must pay over $64,000 in restitution with more than $16,000 to be paid prior to sentencing.
Ammerman questioned the time period for the balance of the restitution, saying he wanted to get money to the individuals as soon as possible.
Good’s attorney, David Freed responded that Good is expected to make large quarterly payments “to satisfy the entire amount.”
A sentencing hearing is currently scheduled in these cases for April 26 at 1 p.m.
In a press release issued late Friday, Shapiro stated: “This guilty plea will help boost income for working Pennsylvanians and puts companies on notice that we will hold them accountable if they illegally underpay workers.
“This kind of theft undercuts honest businesses and means thousands of people get less money than they are legally owed each and every payday. It’s wrong, it’s illegal, and my office is investigating wage theft to help everyone who has ever been cheated out of their full paycheck.”
The original press release detailed how Good asked journey electricians and plumbers to record part of their work as lower pay laborers.
“The workers reported that if they did not change their timesheet accordingly, Good would ask them to change it or someone would change it for them.
“The Grand Jury also found that Goodco reduced the total amount they had to pay towards fringe benefits by crediting itself hourly vacation benefits that employees didn’t use. As a result, workers were not only paid the incorrect rate, but they also had money withheld from their benefits.”
“In total, the Grand Jury believes that Goodco underpaid their employees more than $200,000 since 2010, but due to the Statute of Limitations, they are charged for underpaying more than $64,000 over five years,” the release states.
This was not Good’s first attempt at this type of theft.
“In 2006, the company was found to be in violation of Pennsylvania prevailing wage laws and was sanctioned by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry for the same practice that he is accused of operating at Goodco,” according to the AG’s office.
