Boston contractor, owner charged with perjury related to jobsite deaths
A Massachusetts district legal professional indicted Atlantic Coast Utilities, along with its operator, Laurence Moloney, and an worker, Konstantinos Kollias, for perjury on Nov. 30.
The Wayland, Massachusetts-based mostly contractor allegedly lied on Mattocks-Higgins Affidavits of Place of work Protection, according to a press release from the office of Suffolk County District Lawyer Rachael Rollins. The sorts were being on file when the organization secured permits to perform on a Substantial Road jobsite in Boston, wherever two employees had been killed in February 2021.
Atlantic Coast Utilities was indicted on 4 counts of perjury, and Moloney was indicted on 3 counts. Kollias, an worker, was indicted on a person depend. The Mattocks-Higgins Affidavits are made use of to ascertain any earlier violations by a organization, and no matter whether the enterprise was in the OSHA Severe Violator Enforcement Program.
The district attorney’s place of work alleged that the enterprise, Moloney and Kollias, under suffering of perjury, submitted the Mattocks-Higgins Affidavits to the town of Boston declaring that the business experienced never been cited by OSHA for fines, when in truth it had been issued citations by the office protection agency on September 8, 2016, and yet again on June 3, 2019, in accordance to the district attorney’s office environment.
The business submitted the affidavits 4 situations saying that it experienced no history of OSHA violations. Moloney submitted these sorts 3 instances, on 3 independent dates, though Kollias submitted the affidavit on a person event. Just about every submission of the form direct to a perjury indictment.
The two employees, Jordy Alexander Castaneda Romero, 27, and Juan Carlos Figueroa Gutierrez, 33, had been killed when a dump truck struck and pushed them into a 9-foot-deep excavated trench on the Significant Avenue jobsite. OSHA originally fined the company and Moloney $1.3 million. Moloney experienced repeated violations and a history of evading OSHA fines, according to the agency.
Considering the fact that 2001, Moloney has been investigated six occasions and fined an additional 14 moments, in accordance to a Department of Labor push launch from August. Prior to this February, Moloney experienced $81,242 in fines, of which $73,542 was unpaid and has been referred to credit card debt assortment, in accordance to the launch.
