Four contractors are now facing criminal charges in Nassau County's labor-fraud sweep, and the workers they shorted are getting nearly $650,000 back.

Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly's office, working with the state Department of Labor, brought the charges as part of an ongoing crackdown on prevailing-wage violations and worker misclassification on public jobs. The office announced the arrests and restitution figure this week, first reported by Shore News Network.

Here's how this usually works, and why it keeps happening: a contractor bids a public job at the prevailing wage rate on paper, then pays workers off the books or under a different job title that carries a lower rate. The gap between what's promised on the certified payroll and what actually lands in a worker's check is the fraud — and it's cheaper to get caught than to pay the real rate, until a DA's office decides to make an example of you.

For contractors bidding Nassau County public work, this is the environment you're bidding into now: certified payroll gets checked, and the county has shown it will refer cases for criminal prosecution, not just clawback. A subcontractor with a wage complaint on file is a liability on your team, not just theirs — GCs get pulled into these investigations when a sub on their job is the target.

If you're general contracting in Nassau and you haven't audited your subs' certified payrolls against actual hours this year, that's the move before your next bid opening. The county is looking, and four contractors just found out what happens when they don't like what they find.