3 Long Island companies face wage theft charges; $450G recovered in probe, Nassau DA says

The Nassau District Attorney’s Office said Monday it has returned more than $450,000 to 80 workers in Nassau County in a wage theft probe that has uncovered more than $2 million in labor theft, including workers’ compensation fraud.

District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly's office said in a news release that the workers "were victimized by companies who failed to pay proper wages."

The district attorney’s office, which worked with multiple county agencies, including the county Department of Labor, also announced criminal prosecutions against three Long Island companies. 

“We will continue to pursue every lead, work together with our partners in labor, and make sure that victims of labor crimes get the pay and protections that they rightfully deserve,” Donnelly said in the news release.

The three companies accused of  crimes including wage theft and workers’ compensation theft are Timeless Body II LLC, a medspa in Garden City that provides cosmetic procedures; GC Stud Inc., a Queens-based construction company; and BJA Renovations Corp. of North Babylon, an asbestos removal and demolition company.

Timeless Body and its co-owners, Jason Sichel and Neil Sims, were charged with multiple counts of grand larceny and a scheme to defraud and failure to pay wages.

Sichel and Sim are charged with more than $16,000 in theft, the release said. Sichel and Sims pleaded not guilty and are due back in court on Friday. Each faces up to 7 years in prison if convicted. 

Sichel and Sims allegedly told two prospective employees that each needed to pay $6,000 for training to be hired, but training was never provided after they paid, according to Donnelly's office. The co-owners also allegedly did not pay employees over a period of three weeks, according to the release.

Timeless Body could not immediately be reached for comment.

GC Stud and its owner, Mahendranauth Khargie, of Rockville Centre, was charged with grand larceny and insurance and workers’ compensation fraud, according to the release. 

New York State Insurance Fund investigators found that Khargie allegedly maintained a hidden bank account not reported to insurance auditors between 2019 and 2022. He allegedly underreported his payroll by more than $3.5 million, the release said. 

Khargie pleaded not guilty and is due back in court Wednesday. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

"The defense is currently cooperating with the Nassau County DA’s office," Joseph D. Nohavicka, attorney for GC Stud  and Khargie, said in an email. "Our past clients have always been treated fairly by that office and we are confident that the matter will be resolved in like manner."

BJA Renovations and its president, Nicholas Barnett, were sentenced in May to 3 years' probation for “prevailing wage theft” for stealing more than $80,000 from workers on public work projects at schools in Merrick and Oceanside between 2019 and 2021, according to the release. 

Joseph Demasco, a company manager and Barnett’s co-defendant, is scheduled to be sentenced in November over wage theft charges, according to the release. He will have to pay $81,592 in underpaid wages to more than 40 workers or face up to 3 years in jail, Donnelly's office said. 

"BJA Renovations deeply regrets any oversight that occurred when it came to these matters and is working with the District Attorney’s Office to make the appropriate restitution," Robert F. Schalk, attorney for BJA, said in an email.

The district attorney's Major Financial Frauds Bureau said that since January, it has settled five additional cases with “non-prosecution agreements,” returning $363,000 to 37 workers in the “construction and agriculture industries” in Nassau County. Of that, nearly $130,000 was paid to an unidentified worker, according to the release.

In 2024, the district attorney recovered $287,671 in wages for workers, compared with $450,000 recovered during the first eight months of 2025, Nicole Turso, communications director for the district attorney's office, said.

Additionally, Donnelly has also "expanded investigative staff dedicated to labor law crimes," and lawyers in the DA's labor unit are now "immediately notified of any potential new cases or complaints received by the office" to facilitate faster reviews of potential criminality, Turso said.

Wage theft remains a major issue for workers, and likely remains underreported, said Mary Anne Trasciatti, director of labor studies at Hofstra University.

From 2021 through 2023, roughly $700 million in stolen wages were recovered for workers by the U.S. Department of Labor, according to a 2024 report by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank that analyzes economic trends.

During that same period, an estimated total of $1.5 billion in stolen wages were recovered by the federal Department of Labor, state agencies and class action lawsuits, according to EPI.

“It’s almost certainly more widespread than even people who are aware of the issue know,” Trasciatti said.

Trasciatti said employees may feel their financial situation is too precarious to report wage theft. Additionally, employees may not be aware that their employer is not paying them correctly, she said.