On May 1, celebrated worldwide as International Workers’ Day, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg delivered a gift for employees at a Midtown sports bar.
Owners of La Macarena Restaurant & Sport Bar at West 48th Street were indicted for allegedly stealing tens of thousands of dollars in worker wages between 2021 and 2025. Although the restaurant closed in January 2025, at least six employees are still owed a total of more than $35,000 in unpaid wages. (An attorney for the restaurant did not immediately respond to Documented’s request for comment.)
The indictment was the latest action taken by Bragg’s Worker Protection Unit. The unit, established in 2023, expanded the scope of the preexisting Construction Task Force, which investigated labor abuse in the construction industry. Now it is tasked with investigating and criminally prosecuting wage theft and labor exploitation across industries in Manhattan. In those three years, Bragg’s office has issued 12 indictments and recovered $2.4 million in stolen wages from convictions and settlements, according to the D.A.’s office.
Bragg, who made national headlines for his successful 2024 prosecution of Donald Trump for falsifying business records, told Documented in an exclusive interview that his decision to go after unscrupulous employers as the district attorney was spurred by his experiences of prosecuting them in the New York State Attorney General’s Offices labor bureau. When employers faced prison time instead of just fines, Bragg said, they would be less inclined to commit wage theft.
“The specter of incarceration and criminal penalties seemed to be a significant potential deterrent,” he said. “So we wanted to bring that work here and expand beyond construction to retail and other industries.”
In addition to investigating wage theft cases, the Worker Protection Unit also probes unsafe working conditions. In one high-profile case, Bragg secured the conviction of Uktam Tohirov, a broker for the safety standards firm Valor Security & Investigations who was convicted of multiple criminal counts for his alleged involvement in a scheme that distributed fraudulent Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) safety certification cards to up to 20,000 workers. Documented was the first to report that one worker who obtained the fake OSHA card from Vallor was killed at a Manhattan construction site.
“We have someone who was falsifying important safety certificates, making not just the job unsafe, but also unsafe for pedestrians and those walking by the sites,” Bragg said.
According to Bragg, it’s not unusual that an employer who is operating an unsafe work environment is also involved in wage theft or other kinds of crimes.
“If someone has decided they’re going to engage in fraud, they may not be limited,” he said. “It’s often based on opportunity, and what’s around, as someone who is not following one set of laws may not follow others.”
Immigration status also seems to be a factor when it comes to wage theft cases, with immigrants disproportionately falling victim to having their wages stolen. In 2024, Bragg prosecuted the owner and manager of Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, who was accused of stealing $32,080 in wages from the restaurant’s mostly immigrant employees. The owner, who pleaded guilty and paid restitution, was also accused of telling an employee that they weren’t allowed to wear a hat that had an American flag on it because the employee was an immigrant.
“In a lot of cases, the wage theft is linked,” he said. “We see it co-occurring, if you will, with national origin animus.”
To build cases, the D.A’s office operates a hotline number, where workers can report wage theft and unsafe working conditions anonymously and without fear of immigration status. They also conduct direct outreach, partnering with unions, worker rights organizations, and worker centers.
“A lot of the work we do, the crimes are underreported,” Bragg said. “And we want to encourage people to report; we want them to feel comfortable reporting to us. So we do a lot of outreach directly to the public and also through intermediaries, groups that people trust.”
Worker safety organizations like New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) in Queens have been key partners with the D.A’s office in bringing labor exploitation to light. Employees at La Macarena Restaurant first reached out to NICE for help before the complaint was taken to the D.A.
“Through our collaboration with the District Attorney’s Office, NICE shares a strong commitment to combating wage theft, strengthening ongoing enforcement efforts, and supporting workers affected by these unlawful labor practices,” Hildalyn Colon Hernandez, chief operations and strategic officer at NICE, said in a statement to Documented.
“Together, we are sending a clear message: every worker, regardless of immigration status, deserves every dollar they earn, and we will continue pursuing accountability and justice for affected workers across New York City and New York State,” she said.
To increase the likelihood of a case being successful, Bragg encourages workers to keep meticulous records of their employment as well as interactions with management.
“What helps is when people can keep contemporaneous records,” he said. “If they’ve got pay stubs reflecting that they were paid, for example, a below-minimum-wage rate, if they have records of who the supervisor was, the job site, anything that they would have and sort of collect along the way.”
For employees who previously worked at a job site that later reached a settlement with the city, the D.A’s office operates a Stolen Wage Fund. The fund currently has $260,000.
“Some cases will resolve, and then, say, a year later, someone comes forward and says I worked there too,” Bragg said. “While the case is resolved and the money from the defendant employer has already been returned to the known victims, the fund allows us to, if necessary, provide funds to someone who comes forward later, or if we bring a case and the employer goes out of business.”
Even with 12 indictments under its belt, the unit has only been in operation for three years. Bragg said he believes his office could do more to get the word out to workers that they are here to help.
“Oftentimes, the people whom we want to reach, they understandably, may not want to come forward,” he said. “They may also be working triple shifts and not have a moment to reflect on coming forward to us.”
Workers are encouraged to report wage theft or dangerous work conditions by calling or messaging the Worker Protection Unit at (646) 712-0298.
Workers can also drop in at any of the D.A’s satellite offices:
Harlem Office (in the Harlem State Office Building)
163 West 125th Street, Room 733
New York, NY 10027
212-864-7884
Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Washington Heights Office
530 West 166th Street, Suite 6C
New York, NY 10032
212-335-3320
Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
