NYC Supermarket Executives Face Felony Charges For Allegedly Underpaying Their Employees
New York State Attorney General Cuomo announced today that the president and vice president of the 229 Knickerbocker Corp have been arrested and charged with falsifying business records in the first degree, offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree and failure to pay wages. The 229 Knickerbocker Corp. is the parent company of the Bushwick Associated Supermarket located at 220 Knickerbocker Avenue in Brooklyn which has been the subject of local boycotts . It is alleged the defendants had baggers working for only tips. It is alleged that delivery people were paid less than minimum wage and were not paid overtime despite working an average of seventy hours per week. It is alleged that cashiers and stock people were not paid overtime even though they worked extra hours almost every day that they worked at the supermarket. It is alleged the defendants maintained books that wrongly showed that no supermarket employee worked more than forty-hours per week. It is alleged that the defendants understated the number of employees working at the supermarket on documents filed with the State’s Unemployment Insurance Fund. The New York State Attorney General’s Office is also filing a civil suit against the supermarket asking for over six hundred thousand in back wages for more than thirty workers who were allegedly underpaid since 2004. Attorney General Cuomo’s press release correctly notes that the charges against the two executives are merely accusations and the two executives are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
