Justice has been served after employees at Envy Nails were routinely getting underpaid. Now, Attorney General Letitia James has successfully recovered over $300,000 for more than 100 workers who never received fair pay from their employers. These workers were all employed at Envy Nails at 25 various locations throughout Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan.

According to court records, many of these employees were vulnerable to wage abuse. Many were immigrants who were not aware of the United State’s minimum wage laws. These wage abuses reportedly went on for several years between 2015 and 2021.

Envy Nails was able to get away with their schemes for so long because they misclassified their workers as independent contractors. Due to classifying them as such, Envy Nails was able to pay them a wage that doesn’t meet New York’s minimum wage standard. What’s more, employees who worked overtime were not compensated fairly.

It was also discovered that Envy Nails underreported their sales by over $2 million, which means they severely underpaid on their taxes. It’s estimated that they should owe at least $90,000 in sales tax.

As investigations into the wage abuses were ongoing, it was revealed that Envy Nails also had improperly registered corporate entities. Nails 181, for instance, was an entity associated with Envy Nails. It was discovered that they were not paying any sales tax between 2014 and 2019. As a result, this entity was charged with Grand Larceny in the third degree, resulting in a judgment of over $275,000.

White Collar Crimes are Getting Taken More Seriously by Courtrooms in Recent Years

Wage theft is considered a white collar crime. White collar crimes are violations of the law that usually relate to financial transactions and not physical violence. These crimes are also usually committed by financially well off individuals, corporations, businesses, or other entities.

Some of the most common types of white collar crimes include tax fraud, money laundering, identity theft, bribery, credit card fraud, embezzlement, and Medicare fraud.

While these types of crimes do have a unique label, they aren’t any more or less severe than other crimes. They all carry significant criminal penalties. White collar criminals often don’t have a criminal record before getting charged with their crimes, and they may even be in positions of power. They’re often very wealthy.

Have you or a loved one recently been arrested for a white collar crime? If you don’t have a criminal record, then that can help you craft a solid defense strategy. You should not, however, rely on that fact as your primary talking point. If you do, then you could find yourself getting hit with penalties that include jail time, restitution, probation, and more. To construct the best possible legal defense, it might be best to talk with a criminal defense attorney with extensive experience in white collar criminal defense.

If you’re in the Brooklyn area, then we want to hear from you. Leave your contact information on our online site now to schedule a call from our criminal defense attorneys.