The owner of two New York-based scaffolding businesses that worked on city, state and private projects has agreed to spend 16 weekends behind bars and pay $2 million for underreporting millions of dollars in income.

According to a release by the Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark, Prabhjit Singh, 36, the owner of Bronx-based Rock Scaffolding Corp. and M.S.S. Sidewalk, pleaded guilty in January to criminal tax fraud. He was sentenced Feb. 3.

© iStock.com / MarioGuti

For nearly a decade, the scaffolding companies avoided paying taxes by not filing returns or underreporting income. The image does not show installation by the companies mentioned.

Singh was indicted in December after a three-year investigation by the DA and the city's Department of Finance.

Hidden Income

Since 2008, the companies avoided paying taxes by either not filing returns or filing returns with understated income, prosecutors said.

The income was hidden by cashing checks via check-cashing outlets instead of depositing them into the firms’ bank accounts where the funds would be reported, officials added.

Singh’s “disregard of the law is a slap in the face of hardworking taxpayers,” according to Clark.

New York City Department of Finance Commissioner Jacques Jiha added: “This conviction is a result of our ongoing investigation into tax crimes that eventually impact the many New York businesses that are law abiding.”

The companies could not be reached for comment Tuesday (Feb. 14).