A Walnut Creek man is facing a slew of wage theft and money laundering charges in San Mateo County for allegedly redirecting tens of thousands of dollars paid to his company for a catering contract to personal uses and failing to pay employees more than $8,000 in wages, prosecutors said.
Benjamin George Harbor Jr., 50, was also previously convicted of embezzling hospital funds in Santa Clara County, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
In the San Mateo County case, Harbor was charged with two counts of grand theft of wages, three counts of money laundering with an enhancement for an aggravated white collar crime, one count of obtaining money under false pretenses, one count of attempted grand theft and one count of making a check worth more than $950 with insufficient funds. He was also charged with two counts of failing to file a tax return, one count of filing a false tax return and one count of failing to collect or pay tax, prosecutors said.
Harbor pleaded not guilty to all charges at his arraignment Wednesday.
Shin-Mee Chang, San Mateo County chief deputy district attorney, said that only two counts of wage theft were charged for the six victims because of the thresholds written into the law – one count covered an amount greater than $950 owed to one victim, and the other count covered an aggregated amount exceeding $2,350 for multiple victims.
Harbor’s former conviction will also impact his sentence if he is convicted, Chang added.
“We take all convictions into account when we are formulating a recommendation for the court,” she said. “It’s up to the court to ultimately decide on what the sentence is going to be, and so we will probably be highlighting this in our recommendation to the judge.”
Stephanie Cianci, Harbor’s defense attorney, said that the case is in its very early stages.
“I’m looking forward to working with him and getting this all figured out and reviewing the discovery,” she said. “But in my opinion, this case is just very much in the preliminary stages, and I don’t have a lot of information yet.”
In July 2023, Harbor made a contract bid for his company BSC Catering LLC to run the kitchen at Bonnie Brae Terrace, a senior living facility located in Belmont owned by the BLVD Group, prosecutors said. In order to pass the background check, they said, Harbor submitted a fake name: “B. George Lafrance.”
Once awarded the contract, Harbor was given a $101,680 deposit and two $50,840 monthly payments intended to cover the cost of employee payroll and resident meals, prosecutors said. The funds given to Harbor totaled $203,360.
Instead of using these funds to run the kitchen, Harbor utilized large amounts of money to pay off $70,506 in land purchases, prosecutors said. He also purchased sports tickets and luxury items, and he sent money to family members through the money transfer service Zelle.
A forensic accountant discovered that Harbor had redirected the client funds and other facility revenue into bank accounts he controlled.
BSC Catering then served the residents of Bonnie Brae Terrace below-standard cuisine and could not pay its staff – ultimately leaving the job just months later in December 2023, prosecutors said.
Six employees of BSC Catering were not paid for work and overtime, or were given checks that bounced, prosecutors said. Harbor failed to pay the employees more than $8,000 total.
The case was brought to the attention of San Mateo County after two former employees sought assistance to recover unpaid wages, Chang said. The case was then referred to the DA’s inspectors bureau.
The forensic accountant also discovered that Harbor had brought in $585,815 in unreported income, and that he owed $26,683 in unpaid state taxes. The Employment Development Department recorded no filings of payroll after the first quarter of the 2023 tax year, prosecutors added.
The attempted grand theft charge originated from an incident on Nov. 30, 2023 in which Harbor attempted to deposit a large check that bounced at U.S. Bank in Foster City, Chang said.
Harbor will next appear in court Jan. 21 for the superior court review and for the setting of a preliminary hearing. Harbor is out of custody on $150,000 bail after a hearing determined that the bail funds originated from a legitimate source, prosecutors said.