Cleaning Company Owner Charged with Wage Theft and Insurance Fraud

The office of Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha last week charged the former owner of a defunct cleaning service with wage theft for failing to pay wages to employees who provided cleaning services for the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI), WorkersCompensation.com reports.

Marcello Pompa, former owner of M&M Cleaning of MA, LLC, allegedly failed to pay approximately US$10,885 in wages to 16 former employees from March 4 to March 15, 2019, before the company went out of business later that month. The company provided cleaning services to CCRI at its Lincoln, Providence, and Warwick, Rhode Island campuses and employed about 25 individuals.

Pompa also was charged with failing to maintain workers’ compensation insurance coverage as well as workers’ compensation insurance premium fraud. He falsely reported in 2018 that M&M Cleaning had an estimated annual payroll of $10,000, when state tax records showed that the company reported approximately $388,311 in wages over the previous year. By falsely reporting a lower annual payroll, Pompa was able to obtain a lower workers’ compensation insurance premium from his insurance provider, thereby lowering his business operating expenses. By keeping his business expenses artificially low, he was able to gain a competitive advantage while bidding for cleaning contracts, like the one at CCRI.

Learn tips for bidding on cleaning contracts at schools and universities.