Irish NYC construction execs convicted of fraud surrender for prison sentences

Donal O'Sullivan and Padraig Naughton, the Irish former Navillus Construction executives in New York City who were convicted of fraud, surrendered for their prison sentences today, November 27.

Both O'Sullivan, the founder of Navillus, and Naughton, the former financial controller at Navillus, were due to begin their sentences on November 13, but court documents show that they each received permission to delay the date so they could spend Thanksgiving with their families.

A previous request for permission for O'Sullivan to travel to Ireland for ten days in September had also been granted, court documents show.

According to the Irish Examiner, Naughton will be incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution Fort Dix in New Jersey, while O’Sullivan will present at Federal Prison Camp Pensacola in Florida.

In June, O’Sullivan was sentenced to six months imprisonment for each of the 11 counts he was convicted of in 2021, to be served concurrently.

He is subject to two years of supervised release as well as 100 hours of community service.

Judge Pamela Chen fined Donal $100 special assessment for each count, totaling $1,100.

On the same day Donal was sentenced, his sister Helen O'Sullivan, the former treasurer payroll administrator at Navillus, was sentenced to two years probation with conditions for each of the 11 counts she was convicted of in 2021, to be served concurrently, as well as a $5,000 fine.

She is also subject to a $100 special assessment for each count, for a total of $1,100.

Court documents show that Judge Pamela Chen ordered Helen's probation term to commence immediately on October 27.

Also in June, Naughton was also sentenced to one year and one day in prison for each of the 11 counts he was convicted of in 2021, to be served concurrently.

He was also sentenced to two years of supervised release, with conditions, for each of the 11 counts he was convicted of in 2021, also to be served concurrently.

Judge Pamela Chen further imposed a $100 special assessment fee on each count, for a total of $1,100.

In July 2020, the O'Sullivan siblings and Naughton were indicted on charges that they schemed to avoid making more than $1 million in payments to union benefit funds between 2011 and 2017.

Donal founded Navillus in 1987 with his brothers Kevin and Leonard after they emigrated to the US from Ireland. He served as the owner and president of the construction firm, Helen was the treasurer and payroll administrator, and Naughton was the financial controller.

The three stepped down after their arrest, issuing a statement that they had “no choice but to commit ourselves to clearing our names.”

In October 2021, an NYC jury found Naughton and the O'Sullivan siblings guilty on all 11 counts charging wire fraud, mail fraud, embezzlement from employee benefits funds, submission of false remittance reports to union benefits funds, and conspiracy to commit those crimes.

The District Attorney’s Office said at the time: “Navillus was a signatory to multiple collective bargaining agreements that required the company to make contributions to union benefits funds, such as health, pension, and vacation funds, for all ‘covered work’ performed by its workers at construction sites.

“Between 2011 and 2017, the defendants engaged in a scheme to avoid making these required contributions by placing some of Navillus’s workers on the payroll of another company (the 'Consulting Company.') The Consulting Company then issued weekly paychecks to those Navillus workers for work they did on Navillus construction jobs.

“To conceal the scheme from benefits fund auditors, the defendants caused the Consulting Company to issue fraudulent invoices to disguise the fact that the funds Navillus had issued to the Consulting Firm were made to reimburse the Consulting Company for the wages the Consulting Company had paid to Navillus workers.”

Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said upon the verdict: “As found by the jury, the defendants deliberately devised a fraudulent scheme to avoid making required contributions to union benefits funds on behalf of Navillus’s workers, in order to deprive the workers of benefits they had earned and deserved.”

Naughton was sentenced on June 28, while the O'Sullivan siblings were sentenced on June 30.