Jail sentence for former financial chief of US company founded by Kerry siblings

Padraig Naughton, chief financial officer for Navillus, arrives at Brooklyn Federal Court on June 27, 2023 in New York. Picture: Yuki Iwamura

The former financial controller of a major New York construction company founded by Kerry siblings has been sentenced to jail for his role in a payroll scheme that defrauded unions of funds intended for the benefit of union workers.

Pádraig Naughton (50), former financial chief at Navillus, founded by Ballinskelligs natives Dónal, Kevin and Leonard O’Sullivan in the 1980s, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for each of 11 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 – to run concurrently.

He has also been sentenced to two years supervised release, with conditions, on each of the 11 counts, to run concurrently. 

Judge Pamela Chen of the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York also imposed a $100 special assessment fee for each count, for a total of $1,100. 

Mr Naughton was ordered to surrender for service of sentence at whatever prison is designated by the Bureau of Prisons by 2pm on November 13 next. He has the right to appeal.

The case against Mr Naughton was taken by the US Government who had sought a custodial sentence, arguing that Mr Naughton had “deliberately and painstakingly” overseen the fraudulent payroll scheme over the course of six years, systematically deceiving the auditors of the benefits funds, and denying union workers of funds they were entitled to, including health insurance and retirement funds.

Mr Naughton, along with Dónal O’Sullivan, owner and founder of Navillus and his sister, Helen O’Sullivan, who ran the payroll department, were found guilty in October 2021 of 11 counts of felony arising from their participation in the fraudulent payroll scheme. 

Dónal and Helen are due to be sentenced later this month. 

Navillus is a major construction company in New York, and has worked on a variety of prestige projects, including the 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Centre, Grand Central Station, One Vanderbilt, Madison Square Garden, the Apple flagship store in Manhattan and the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens.

Kevin O’Sullivan, who sold his shares in Navillus to Dónal a number of years ago, founded Time Square Construction, of which Tower Holdings Group is the Irish subsidiary.

The Tower Group is behind plans for Ireland’s tallest building, a 34 storey hotel on the former Port of Cork site and also plans to build a Prism next to Cork City’s central bus station. Work on the Prism halted last June, after the foundations were laid. Work has not begun on the Port of Cork site.