Foreign workers say they were paid less than $2 an hour to build a new US Consulate

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: ABC News/AP

June 11, 2026, 1:25 AM


MILAN -- Foreign workers building a sprawling $350 million American Consulate in Milan were paid less than $2 an hour after being promised fair wages, according to Associated Press interviews with five former employees and a review of their employment letters and pay stubs.

Italian prosecutors are investigating Montgomery, Alabama-based Caddell Construction, a major builder of U.S. diplomatic missions. Two of its managers in Italy were arrested this month on suspicion of labor exploitation, one while boarding a flight to leave the country and another planning to flee, prosecutors said.

The investigation is led by prosecutor Paolo Storari, who also has spearheaded probes into sweatshops supplying luxury brands. So far only Caddell has been named as a target, not any of its subcontractors.

The consulate probe was launched about six months ago and involves some 70 workers, mostly from India. Prosecutors allege Caddell illegally deducted room and board from wages and forced them to work 10-hour days, six days a week. Some were paid as little as 500 euros (less than $580) monthly after room and board were deducted, prosecutors said. Caddell and the U.S. State Department said they are investigating the allegations and cooperating with Italian authorities.

Read more: https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/foreign-workers-paid-2-hour-build-new-us-133773602

[UpInArms]

1. The cheater's playbook

Billionaire Trump Fleeces Workers, Small Businesses

Using rape-and-pillage corporate practices favored by Wall Street, Donald Trump made himself billions while swindling and bankrupting untold numbers of hourly workers and small businesses.

In recounting his “deal-making” experience, Trump says the important thing is that he made a buck, that he came out rich. He ignores the father of five who lost his business when a Trump casino didn’t pay for cabinets. He discounts the minimum wage workers that a Trump resort cheated out of hundreds of dollars of overtime.

And that, Trump says, is how he’d run the country. Trump said that as president he’d treat the nation’s creditors the way he did the creditors in his repeated business bankruptcies, forcing them to accept pennies on the dollar owed. Somebody loses. But it’s never billionaire Trump. When Americans elect a president, they want a leader who will look out for the little guy, not take advantage of him. Exploiting the little guy – and everybody else – to make a buck for himself is Donald Trump’s M.O. That’s not presidential.

The terrible tale of Trump casinos in Atlantic City illustrates his relationship with money, workers and small business. His casino companies went to bankruptcy court four times. Tradesmen, small businesses and creditors weren’t paid. But Trump made out like a bandit. And he’s mighty proud of it.

“Atlantic City fueled a lot of growth for me,” he boasts. “The money I took out of there was incredible.”
He told the New York Times repeatedly that it wasn’t the bankruptcies that mattered; what was really important was that Donald Trump made a lot of money.

What he said is true: he prospered on the backs of botched casino projects. Even as his three Atlantic City casinos failed, a New York Times investigation found Trump shifted personal debts to the casino companies and collected millions of dollars in salary, bonuses and other payments.

…….. more at link ……..

If only we had known this before November 2016 … oh, lookie there! Here’s the publication date:

June 21, 2016

[not fooled]

3. Amazing, isn't it?

The rise of the Con to the White House is the craziest, stupidest thing I've ever seen.

I remember in 2015 listening to several interviews with David Cay Johnston, longtime chronicler of krasnov's criminality. He described extensive mob ties and tax cheating, among other disqualifying aspects of krasnov's history. Democracy Now also covered his sordid past.

I assumed that was it--the national media would pick up and run with these stories, which would result in a quick end to the candidacy. Because of course if someone was a lifelong criminal, the press would so inform voters and said voters would reject that person's candidacy outright. Because of course anyone known to be a longtime criminal would NEVER become president of the USA.

Wow, was I naive.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. "If only we had known this before November 2016 ... oh, lookie there! Here's the publication date: June 21, 2016"

That was known almost 30 years before that when he was first feuding with Merv Griffin for casino ownership not long after legalization in AC.

Merv Griffin’s Outrageous Fortune : When Millionaire Griffin Took on Billionaire Trump, They Said It Was a Mismatch. They Were Wrong.


By NINA J. EASTON
July 24, 1988 12 AM PT

Nina J. Easton is a Times staff writer.


(snip)

Merv Griffin is here this April afternoon because he has thrown a gigantic wrench into Trump’s plans to buy out the public shares of Resorts International, a hotel-casino company with flashy properties in Atlantic City and the Bahamas. Trump is anxious to take the company private to get the control and financing he needs to complete construction on the company’s Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey’s seaside gambling resort.

(snip)

But days before Trump expected to close his Resorts purchase, Griffin appeared out of nowhere with a competing offer for the company. Now the two men are locked in a nasty, name-calling, lawsuit-swapping takeover fight.

(snip)

The dealing starts. Trump says he wants the Taj. OK, Griffin says. And the Steel Pier jutting out from the Taj boardwalk. OK. “Is that all?” Griffin asks. “Yes,” Trump says. Just like that, it’s over. When Griffin reaches out to shake on the deal, Trump is surprised. It was too fast, too easy. Maybe Griffin was right when he said, much later, that Trump would have relished negotiating every detail, right down to the paper towels in the casino restrooms. After all, this is the man who persuaded the city of New York to turn over prime real estate at bargain-basement prices. But the deal is set, and the details are left to their top executives, who spend the next four hours at a bar in the Helmsley Palace Hotel hammering out the agreement. Finally, a little after 7 that evening, Michael Nigris, president of Griffin Co., returns to Griffin’s suite at the Helmsley to tell him everything is settled; he can purchase Resorts International for $295 million. “Shhh!” Griffin says as he sits in front of the TV, his eyes glued to “Wheel of Fortune.” “That woman just won $36,000--now that’s real cash!”

(snip)

But Griffin busted up a deal that others with deep pockets wouldn’t go near. And he managed to back the legendary Trump far enough into a corner that he had to come to the negotiating table--or risk losing control of Resorts and his pet project, the Taj Mahal. The real point of the Resorts saga is that Merv Griffin, Southern California TV personality, went up against one of the biggest boys around and got what he wanted. He paid a price, a hefty one--but he got it. In only six months, starting with his purchase of the Beverly Hilton Hotel last December, Griffin has built a chain of six major hotels and two casinos. His net worth, he estimates, will top $1 billion when the Resorts deal closes later this summer. If the financial world needed any more assurance that Griffin had arrived, his handshake with Trump that afternoon was it.

(snip)

Resorts is still there, the Taj is now a Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. I remember hopping a $20 casino bus leaving from here in Philly to Resorts, where they handed you a $20 roll of quarters when you arrived, making the trip "free". They were the only casino operating at the time just after legalization.

[UpInArms]

5. I was working in the real estate development business in 1983

We knew any project with his name involved was absolute shit

…

I was just being a bit sarcastic about knowing this in 2016

[BumRushDaShow]

6. He was excessively written about back in the '80s

particularly by the NYT (have had a sub with them since 1976 - my mom followed him and Ted Turner and John Malone... lol).

[Scruffy1]

2. Typical cracker outfit.

I could never understand why these red state companies get so much federal largesse. Personally, I think there is some corruption involved, but they never seem to suffer any consequences. Alabama sends its anti government goons to Washington, then takes in billions in federal money. It's a sad state of affairs when the Italian police arrest them, yet they are never looked into in the good old corrupt USA,