Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, (Twitter)
June 3, 2020 By Christian Murray
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz has established a new bureau tasked with investigating and prosecuting predatory lenders, housing scammers and contractors who fail to pay their employees prevailing wage.
The new unit, called the Housing and Worker Protection Bureau, will work with other agencies to prosecute con artists and unfair employers.
“Far too often, people are swindled into giving away their property. Unscrupulous criminals often target elderly or vulnerable people in real estate scams convincing them to sign on a dotted line that literally gives away their home,” Katz said in a statement. “This new bureau will investigate those crimes.”
The new bureau will not only focus on prosecuting these crimes but also educating the community on how to avoid being victims.
The unit will also target contractors who take money-saving shortcuts at the expense of worker safety; employers who skim wages from their employees; and those who refuse to pay the prevailing wage.
The bureau will be run by William Jorgenson, a career prosecutor who over the course of three decades has handled homicide and narcotics trials, insurance-fraud investigations and financial crimes.
