Two business owners out of Soledad and Monterey pleaded guilty Friday to failing to secure workers’ compensation insurance, both misdemeanors, according to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office. Everado Nieto, 47, and Guz Lazrovich, 38, were each placed on three years’ probation and made to pay several thousand dollars in fines. Nieto owns Evercleen, a Soledad-based carpet cleaning business. An employee filed a complaint with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement indicating he was owed wages and had been injured on the job.

During the DA’s investigation, Nieto was invited to a Contractor State License Board sting operation in which it was learned he had employees but not the required workers’ compensation insurance, prosecutors said. In addition to probation, he was ordered to maintain insurance, waive his search and seizure rights and pay a $10,000 fine with $45,000 suspended during the term of probation.

Lazrovich is a licensed contractor out of Monterey who indicated to the CSLB he was exempt from maintaining insurance as he did not have employees. On July 16, CSLB investigators discovered employees of Lazrovich paving a driveway in Monterey. Lazrovich previously claimed he always worked by himself but later admitted the type of work being done could not be accomplished by a single person.

He indicated he would secure insurance, which he did prior to court Friday, prosecutors said. In addition to probation, he was ordered to waive his search and seizure rights and to pay $10,000 in fines with $8,000 suspended during the term of probation. The maximum sentence would have been a year in the Monterey County Jail and a fine up to double the premium owed.