Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that Nicholas Analitis, 45, of Massapequa, and his corporation Gorilla Contracting Group, LLC, were sentenced after pleading guilty to possessing forged documents including a bank check, a Surety Bond, and an Apprenticeship Program agreement, and then submitting the forged documents to municipalities in the Village of Babylon and the Town of Islip.
“Forgery and fraudulent business activity are not victimless crimes,” said District Attorney Tierney. “The kind of deceit that these defendants engaged in hurts the workers whose livelihoods depend on trusted business dealings. If you do business in Suffolk County, you have to pay your workers what they are entitled to and otherwise comply with the law.”
“District Attorney Tierney needs to be commended for the aggressive pursuit of this crime for it harms hard working men and women who expect honesty and integrity from their employer,” said William Duffy, President of International Union of Operating Engineers Local Union 138. “This prosecution also sends a powerful message to every company owner who believes the law is meant to be ignored, skirted, or broken. Not in this county.”
"Contractors have been cheating workers and municipalities on Long Island public work projects for too long,” said Joseph Montalbano, President of Labors Union Local 66. “The hard-working men and women of labor applaud District Attorney Tierney for his campaign against wage theft. Everyone cheating workers and taxpayers on construction projects should know that they are not above the law and that more prosecutions are coming from District Attorney Tierney's office."
According to the investigation and the defendants’ admissions during the guilty plea allocutions, from June 2018 to July 2018, Analitis possessed a forged Comerica Bank Check in which the value amount and the name of the payee, were altered. The check was instead made payable to “Nick Consulting Services Inc.,” which is one of Analitis’ corporations. Additionally, between August 2020 and September 2020. Analitis possessed a Surety Bond with a forged signature, which was submitted to the Village of Babylon for a public works project.
Gorilla Contracting Group, LLC was found in possession of an Apprenticeship Program agreement with Union Local 1298 which falsely indicated that the corporation was a participant of its Apprenticeship Program, when they were not. On February 25, 2021, Gorilla Contracting Group, LLC submitted the forged agreement to the Town of Islip in its bidding package for a public works project.
On March 14, 2022, Analitis and Gorilla Contracting Group, LLC both pleaded guilty before Supreme Court Justice, the Honorable Richard Ambro. Analitis pleaded guilty to two counts of Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second Degree, a Class D felony, and Gorilla Contracting Group, LLC pleaded guilty to one count of Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second Degree.
On October 5, 2023, Judge Ambro sentenced Analitis to three and a half to seven years in prison. Analitis and Gorilla Contracting Group, LLC are also required to pay $106,359.15 in restitution to Road and Heavy Construction Laborers’ Union Local 1298, and $32,562.63 in restitution to the International Union of the Operating Engineers Local Union 138, 138A, and 138B. Both Analitis and Gorilla Contracting Group, LLC were represented by Lawrence Carra, Esq.
This case was prosecuted by Bureau Chief Lucie Kwon and Assistant District Attorney Adriana Noyola of the Financial Crimes Bureau, with investigative assistance from Suffolk County Police Department Financial Crimes Unit Detective Daniel Pagano and Suffolk County District Attorney Investigative Unit Detective Dennis Marcel.
Criminal complaints and indictments are merely accusatory instruments. Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. No one is above the law.