A kitchen services contractor has been charged with 12 felonies for an alleged wage theft and fraud scheme he was running at Bonnie Brae Terrace, a Belmont senior living facility, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
The man, 50-year-old Benjamin Harbor, 50, of Walnut Creek, allegedly applied for a license to run the kitchen via his catering company, BSC Catering, using a fake name due to a previous embezzlement conviction. While working with the senior living facility between July 2023 and October 2024, he was paid an upfront deposit of $100,000 and an additional monthly $50,000 for food and employee payroll.
Six of those employees alleged they were not paid overtime and received low and sporadically-paid wages, culminating in over $8,000 in wage theft, Wagstaffe said. Harbor is also alleged to have not reported $585,000 in income and not paid $26,000 in income taxes.
He was arrested Dec. 16, and posted a $150,000 bail on Dec. 17, when he also pleaded not guilty. The case — which is the fourth in the county to have been investigated and charged as a result of the DA’s wage theft unit — has been continued to Jan. 21 for Superior Court review.
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