Construction foreman gets prison term for stealing $330,000 from employees

A Costa Mesa man who worked as a construction foreman was sentenced Friday to 4 1/2 years in state prison for stealing more than $330,000 from the employees he supervised.

An Orange County Superior Court judge handed down the verdict immediately after Antonio Naranjo Jr., 41, pleaded guilty to 13 felony counts.

According to prosecutors, Naranjo worked for Irvine-based construction company Malcon Civils Inc.

Between Jan. 11 and Aug. 10, 2011, authorities said, Naranjo and the company’s owner, Mustafa Mohamed Bdaiwi, told their employees that they would be fired if they didn’t hand over portions of their paychecks. The pair was accused of forging payroll documents to cover up the theft.

Bdaiwi, 43, of Irvine, has pleaded not guilty to the same 13 felonies and to an additional 10 felony charges of willful failure to pay taxes and four felony counts of misrepresenting facts to the State Compensation Insurance Fund.

If Bdaiwi is convicted, he could spend a maximum of 21 years in state prison. He is currently free on $2-million bail, prosecutors said.

Naranjo and Bdaiwi were working on publicly funded projects at the time of the alleged scheme, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office. One of the projects was at an Irvine elementary school.

“Bdaiwi and Naranjo Jr. constructed a wall, which later began to lean over and subsequently needed to be removed due to faulty construction and causing a safety hazard,” prosecutors said Friday.

The two also were accused of stealing money from employees while working on a project for the city of Hemet.

Naranjo was already behind bars for burglary, so his sentence in the construction case will be added to the two years and eight months in state prison he is already serving, according to prosecutors.

In 2012, Naranjo stole an iPad and jewelry after breaking into his neighbor’s Newport Beach home, according to the district attorney’s office.

Police arrested Naranjo after they found his DNA in the neighbor’s bedroom, prosecutors said.