New Hampshire Man Pleads Guilty to Obstruction of Justice in Connection with U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Investigation, and Lawsuit

CONCORD, NH – A New Hampshire man has pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of obstruction of justice in connection with a U.S. Department of Labor wage and hour investigation and litigation. It is believed to be the first federal criminal prosecution arising from a Department wage and hour investigation in New Hampshire.

Kevin Corriveau, owner and operator of Kevin Corriveau Painting Inc. of Nashua, was the subject of an investigation by the Department’s Wage and Hour Division and a subsequent civil lawsuit and a consent judgment filed by the Department’s Office of the Solicitor for alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

In his plea, on Dec. 15, 2017, Corriveau admitted that he caused an employee of his company to provide false information to investigators from the Department’s Wage and Hour Division in 2009 and 2011 regarding the extent of overtime hours worked by employees of the company.

From 2007 through April 2011, Corriveau had been directing employees to report only non-overtime work on payroll and time records to conceal FLSA overtime violations from being found in those records. In 2011, Corriveau himself also falsely stated to investigators that his employees did not work overtime on a Needham, Massachusetts, construction project.

In 2013 – in connection with the civil suit filed against him – Corriveau knowingly created and provided the Department’s attorneys with fraudulent invoices and an altered change order that falsely stated that his employees did not work overtime on the Needham project.

Corriveau is scheduled to be sentenced on March 26, 2018, according to Acting United States Attorney John J. Farley of the District of New Hampshire.

The Department’s Wage and Hour Division and Office of the Inspector General investigated the case with assistance from the Department’s Office of the Solicitor and Employee Benefits Security Administration.

The criminal case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert M. Kinsella and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Miller. Scott Miller is also a Senior Trial Attorney at the Labor Department’s Office of the Solicitor in Boston, Massachusetts.