NEW CITY – A Huntington man, whose company, Vanessa Construction, Inc., was hired to strip and redevelop an existing building at the Helen Hayes Hospital in West Haverstraw, has been charged with defrauding employees out of $91,000 in unpaid wages and benefits.

Mario Echeverria, 56, operated the company, which was supposed to pay prevailing wages of between $34 and $54 per hour to his employees depending upon the type of work they performed. He was also required to provide the workers with benefits, including health insurance, or pay the equivalent of the benefits in cash.

Instead, Echeverria paid the workers less and pocketed the difference between what he paid them and what he received from the state.

To cover the thefts, he is alleged to have falsified payroll information submitted to Albany. Certified payrolls submitted failed to list which workers were actually working and falsely stated that the company was paying employees cash in lieu of benefits, when they were not. The payrolls also contained false information about which days and low long the employees worked.

Echeverria was arrested Monday on a sealed indictment handed up by the Rockland County grand jury. He was released on his own recognizance pending a future court appearance.

If convicted, he faces up to seven years in state prison.