A New Jersey man and two associates were criminally charged Wednesday for their role operating a tobacco-processing empire in the heart of Brooklyn, with prosecutors alleging they failed to pay two dozen immigrant workers — most of them middle-aged mothers from Ecuador — hundreds of thousands of dollars in owed wages and made them work under illegally hazardous conditions.
The allegations were outlined in a 74-count indictment unveiled by Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez against HotHead Grabba LLC, its owner Hunter Segree, 28, and two of his associates, who were arraigned in Kings County Supreme Court on charges of grand larceny, falsifying business records, state labor law violations and other charges.
The three men and the company were also hit with charges of reckless endangerment tied to the sweatshop-like conditions that workers endured stripping 15 pounds of tobacco by hand during shifts that lasted 12 or more hours a day, six or seven days a week. The loose tobacco sold by the brand is offered in dozens of bodegas across the city and region…