Hennepin County Attorney Discusses State’s First Felony Wage Theft Conviction

Hennepin County Attorney Discusses State’s First Felony Wage Theft Conviction

Late Thursday morning, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty spoke at a news conference to discuss what her office says is the state of Minnesota’s first ever felony wage theft conviction.

Moriarty was joined by members of her staff, as well as labor leaders at the Government Center Auditorium. There, Moriarty said the owner of Integrated Painting Solutions (IPS), a Minneapolis-based painting company, was found guilty of stealing more than $35,000 in wages from employees who were working on The Redwell Project, an apartment building built in 2020.

The owner, identified Thursday as 59-year-old Frederick Newell of Lakeville, made multiple deceptive acts, including filing false payroll reports and telling employees that minimum wage didn’t apply to some work, such as touch-ups.

A criminal complaint filed in January of 2023 charged Newell with wage theft and theft by swindle. On Wednesday, a Hennepin County judge found Newell guilty of both charges following a bench trial held back in January.

The charging document states employees were underpaid by $37,001.44 between June 8, 2020, through December 4, 2020, for their painting and cleaning worked performed on the Redwell.

Meanwhile, Newell’s theft by swindle charge came due to Greiner Construction making payments to IPS as part of a subcontract agreement. IPS as hired for paint work and wall covering. However, Newell accepted payments from Greiner even though he knew he wasn’t paying prevailing wage, was hiding hours worked and more.

Newell is currently scheduled to be sentenced in June. There, the wage theft victims will be able to talk about the impact of their wages being stolen.

According to Moriarty’s office, Newell’s presumptive sentence is a stayed 21-month sentence, however, the court found he committed “major economic offenses”, which may lead to a more serious sentence.

SOURCE: abc KSTP.COM