Loretto businesswoman charged with swindle

Authorities Thursday charged the owner of an electric company with swindling almost $242,000 from her employees since 2010.

Honda Electric President Laura Lee Plzak, 53, of Loretto, Minn., was charged with five counts of theft by swindle for failing to pay 22 workers the prevailing wage on state and local road projects, according to a criminal complaint.

From April 2010 to January 2013, Honda Electric, a subcontractor on a Minnesota Department of Transportation project at Interstate Hwy. 35W and I-694, shortchanged employees $242,000, according to the complaint.

In October 2010, MnDOT opened an investigation into the electric company after one of the employees told investigators that he was paid $17 an hour instead of the $58.50 he was entitled to under the prevailing wage law.

The law requires that contractors and subcontractors working on government-funded projects should pay their workers a wage comparable to that of regular employees doing similar work.

Another worker contacted the authorities and said she was paid no more than $12 an hour, although her paystubs indicated she had been paid the correct prevailing wage of $42.

When the employee asked about the discrepancy, she was told that she was being paid the $10 to $12 an hour that Honda Electric had promised her. "Don't you think that's fair?" Plzak reportedly asked the employee. According to the complaint, the employee responded that she did not think it was fair if she was entitled to $42 an hour.

Plzak allegedly said she hoped the employee would not cause trouble for her and her husband. Plzak had confessed to authorities that her company did not comply with the prevailing wage law and had manipulated payroll reports. Her first court appearance has not yet been set.

Her husband, Jeffrey Plzak, pleaded guilty to similar charges in federal court and was sentenced to 22 months in prison earlier this month.