Ex-Navillus CEO found guilty of cheating unions

Donal O’Sullivan and other employees face up to 20 years in prison

Donal O’Sullivan (Image via Navillus)
Donal O’Sullivan (Image via Navillus)

A jury has convicted the former CEO of Navillus, one of the city’s largest construction contractors for his role in a scheme that cheated unions out of more than $1 million.

Donal O’Sullivan was found guilty on multiple counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, embezzlement from employee benefits funds, submission of false remittance reports to union benefits funds and conspiracy to commit those crimes, federal prosecutors announced Friday.

His sister Helen O’Sullivan, the company’s treasurer, and Padraig Naughton, Navillus’ comptroller, were convicted on the same charges, following a three-week trial, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

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The trio were indicted in July 2020 on charges that they schemed to avoid making more than $1 million in payments to union benefit funds between 2011 and 2017. Prosecutors said the O’Sullivans and Naughton used a consulting firm to pay workers without making contributions to the union benefit funds, as required by multiple collective bargaining agreements.

The three stepped down after their arrest. At the time, O’Sullivan noted that they had “no choice but to commit ourselves to clearing our names.”

That effort having failed, they each face up to 20 years in prison.