The first person convicted of wage theft in Minnesota history has been sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay more than $42,000 in restitution.
Frederick Leon Newell, a 59-year-old from Lakeville, was sentenced June 6 for one count of wage theft and one count of theft by swindle, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. Newell was convicted after a bench trial in January.
“Mr. Newell was entrusted with public funds to pay his employees for their labor on a public works project,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement. “Instead, he siphoned the money they earned for himself.”…