A Lakeville man was sentenced Friday in connection with the first wage theft criminal conviction in state history.
Frederick Leon Newell, 59, was sentenced Friday on one count of wage theft and one count of theft by swindle, following the enactment of the 2019 law.
Following state sentencing guidelines, Newell was given stays of imposition of sentence on both counts and a probationary period of three years. In addition, he will be required to complete 200 hours of community service work. He was also ordered to pay more than $42,000 in restitution and may not bid on or participate in new public contracts.
“This wage-theft conviction is the first of its kind in Minnesota. It is an important step forward in our efforts to protect workers,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said. “This type of behavior will not be tolerated. Mr. Newell was entrusted with public funds to pay his staff for their labor on a public works project. Instead, he siphoned their money for himself.”
According to the criminal complaint, Newell committed wage theft by failing to pay employees at his company at the rate of pay required by law. Newell owned Integrated Painting Solutions in Apple Valley, according to the criminal complaint.
Newell’s company secured a bid to do work on the Redwell apartment complex at 1020 N. Third St. in Minneapolis. He hired seven people to paint and do cleaning. All that work was subject to wage requirements under city ordinance and state and federal law.
His trial ran from Jan. 16 to Jan. 22, and the court delivered the verdict on April 9.
In total, five employees of Mr. Newell’s company were underpaid by a total of at least $37,001.44 between June 8, 2020, and Dec. 4, 2020, for painting and cleaning labor.
On the theft by swindle charge, Mr. Newell continued to accept payments from a general contractor over the course of a project despite knowing that his company was in financial distress, was not paying prevailing wage and was concealing hours worked by employees.
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