Contractor Pleads Guilty in Wage-Kickback Case
A Calabasas landscaping contractor who forced his predominantly Latino workers to kick back more than half of their wages pleaded guilty in federal court to making false statements in his payroll records.
Steve Salke, 48, who will be sentenced June 12, faces up to five years in federal prison.
Between 1995 and 1998, Salke’s company, Aztec Landscape Engineering, was awarded more than $2 million in state Department of Transportation contracts to maintain highway interchanges, prosecutors said.
Salke agreed to pay his workers $8 to $12 per hour, but cut checks to them in amounts consistent with the state’s prevailing wage of $24 to $29 per hour, prosecutors said.
He then arranged for the workers to be driven to banks to cash their paychecks and return the difference to him, prosecutors said.
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