Landscape Contractor Pleads Guilty in Pay Fraud
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 Aztec Landscape Engineering company was awarded more than $2 million in state Department of Transportation contracts to landscape and maintain highway interchanges, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Salke agreed to pay his workers $8 to $12 per hour, but wrote checks to them in amounts consistent with the state’s prevailing wage of $24 to $29 per hour. The workers then cashed the checks and paid him the difference.
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