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Homebuilder reaches $1.6M settlement over Westlawn wage violations

By: Dan Shaw, [email protected]//June 15, 2015//

Homebuilder reaches $1.6M settlement over Westlawn wage violations

By: Dan Shaw, [email protected]//June 15, 2015//

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A New Berlin homebuilder has agreed to pay more than $1.6 million in restitution and damages to settle charges that his company violated federal prevailing wage laws while working on the Westlawn Gardens public-housing project on Milwaukee’s northwest side.

Scott Watry, owner of Watry Homes, has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and to obstruct an investigation into the compensation he provided, from 2011 to 2012, to workers employed on the Westlawn project. According to a news release Monday from the U.S. Department of Justice, Watry and his associates were suspected of paying workers considerably less than the compensation required under the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires that prevailing wages be part of any project that receives federal money.

According to the news release, the underpayments were concealed in several ways. Watry and his associates, at times, would allegedly report fewer hours than were actually worked, a sleight of hand that concealed that the higher wages reported were not in fact paid. Watry and others, according to the release, would also list employees who were not working on the project, another maneuver that helped conceal the practice of paying the real workers less than was required.

An attempt to reach Watry was not immediately successful Monday afternoon.

Of the settlement amount, slightly more than $1 million is being paid in response to allegations that Watry violated the federal False Claims Act. A lawsuit filed by a whistleblower alleged that Watry had filed false certified-payroll reports to support payment claims on the Westlawn project, as well as public-housing projects in Beloit and Waukesha. Also as part of the settlement, Watry agreed to pay $659,822 to the workers who were underpaid on the Westlawn project.

Between 2011 and 2012, according to the release, Watry Homes performed $4.7 million worth of work on the Westlawn project.

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