The owner of a development company is among three men who pleaded not guilty to underpaying employees on public works projects.
Scott Sung Yang, 44, Los Angeles, owned and operated Mackone Development and employed Michael John Ferrin as his project superintendent to oversee projects, according to Roxi Fyad of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
No Sung Pak is accused of working for Mackone Development as a subcontractor on several public works projects, Fyad said.
Yang was awarded a public works project at Harvey Street Elementary School in Santa Ana in 2012 as the prime contractor.
Between Jan. 1, 2005, and July 29, 2012, the defendants are accused of conspiring to underpay workers on numerous public works projects $10 to $14 per hour after contractually agreeing to pay a wage of about $44 per hour, Fyad said.
Between April 2009 and April 2015, Pak is accused of requiring his workers to work six-day weeks with daily shifts lasting 12 to 14 hours, Fyad said.
Pak is accused of paying his workers by check for the first 40 hours a week and paying them cash for any overtime they worked and failing to report the payments to State Compensation Insurance Fund or the Employment Development Department, Fyad said.
Pak, 74, of Hollywood, Ferrin, 40, of San Pedro, and Yang are each charged with five felony counts of taking and receiving a portion of a worker’s wage on public works and one felony count of recording a false forged instrument, Fyad said.
Pak is additionally charged with 29 felony counts of willful failure to pay tax and two felony counts each of misrepresenting facts to the State Compensation Insurance Fund and misrepresenting facts to the workers’ compensation insurance company, Fyad said.
If convicted, Pak faces a maximum sentence of 27 years and four months in state prison, and Ferrin and Yang each face a maximum sentence of five years and four months in state prison.
The defendants are out of custody on $50,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 1.