Houston contractor indicted for making false statements about paying prevailing wage on CMHA jobs

A 61-count indictment was filed charging Marcus Butler, of Houston, with making multiple false statements to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and the United States Department of Labor while defrauding the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority and several of his former employees, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, announced that.

The indictment alleges that Butler ran an electrical company called LB Electric of Northeast Ohio in the Cleveland area.  Butler and his company agreed to work as subcontractors on a number of CMHA construction projects, including projects at the Riverside Park, Union Square and Delaney Village properties. 

Butler, as a subcontractor on the CMHA project, agreed to pay his employees a prevailing wage while they worked on these CMHA projects and further agreed to provide certified weekly payrolls to CMHA. Although Butler submitted numerous certified payrolls claiming that he paid a prevailing wage to his employees, he did not in fact make such payments to his employees and instead submitted false certified payrolls to conceal this conduct. As a result of his conduct, Butler overstated the amount of wages paid to his employees, and thus underpaid his employees, by approximately $126,514, according to the indictment.

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court after review of the factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the criminal conduct.  In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum. 

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Om Kakani, following an investigation by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General, the United States Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, and CMHA. 

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.