New Rochelle contractor sentenced in wage theft conviction

A New Rochelle contractor who was found guilty of eight counts of wage theft was sentenced by New Rochelle City Court Judge Eileen Songer-McCarthy. Arternio Fuerte, age 38, had entered guilty pleas on May 1 to six counts of failure to pay wages and on June 7 to two additional counts of the same misdemeanor and the sentencing was announced yesterday by Westchester District Attorney Miriam Rocah’s office.

Fuerte operated Fuerte Construction LLC. Rocah’s office began an investigation into Fuerte after a receiving complaints that had been filed with the assistance of workers’ rights advocates at St. John Bosco Parish-Don Bosco Workers in Port Chester, Catholic Charities Community Services-Archdiocese of New York in Yonkers, and United Community Center of Westchester in New Rochelle.

Fuerte was sentenced to three years of probation and a $12,000 fine for failing to pay more than $31,500 to eight workers he employed between 2020 and 2023 as painters, carpenters and laborers.

Rocah said, “Not paying workers for months on end is a crime and not a business model. We will continue to hold employers who commit wage theft accountable and that includes securing from them the full amount of back pay owed to workers.”

Rocah praised a law enacted by the state legislature in October of last year that makes wage theft greater than $1,000 a felony. She said it will aid in preventing and combating this pernicious problem that has dire consequences for working families and communities.

The District Attorney’s Office Criminal Investigators Squad arrested Fuerte on May 23, 2022 for failing to pay four workers a total of $21,150 between December 2020 and November 2021. Investigators arrested the defendant a second time on Oct. 14, 2022 for failing to pay two additional workers a total of $2,370 between March and August 2022, and arrested the defendant, a third time, on Jan. 30, 2024 for failing to pay two additional workers a total of $8,063 between November 2022 and February 2023.