Workers At New Midtown Hotel Get $100K In Stolen Wages Returned

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — More than a dozen workers at an under-construction Midtown hotel will be made whole after their employer stole more than $100,000 in pay from them, prosecutors said Tuesday.

The 18 electrical workers had been employed by a Staten Island-based subcontractor to work on the Virgin Hotel, a 38-story, 460-room tower being built on Broadway between West 29th and 30th streets, in NoMad.

Between Jan. 23 and March 18, the unlicensed company, AMPAK Electrical Services, failed to pay 18 workers at the construction site, amounting to $112,176 in lost wages, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

"When the workers complained about missing paychecks, they were promised that the checks were coming, or falsely told that the General Contractor had not yet paid the company," the D.A.'s office said.

In March, workers used the D.A. Office's WhatsApp tipline and contacted the nonprofit New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) to report the alleged theft. The nonprofit, in turn, referred the complaints to the D.A. Office's Construction Fraud Task Force, which corroborated the claims by interviewing the workers, prosecutors said.

AMPAK is expected to plead guilty to a felony fraud charge on Sept. 21, prosecutors said. The state Department of Labor will distribute the recovered wages to the workers.

"The Manhattan D.A.’s Office will continue to ensure that hard-working people aren’t stiffed by greedy employers," D.A. Cyrus Vance said in a statement.

The Virgin Hotel at 1225 Broadway is nearly complete. Once open, it will be the sixth hotel in the Virgin chain, operated by Sir Richard Branson. The ritzy facility will feature an outdoor swimming pool, an underground golf store and expansive retail space.