BECKLEY, W.Va. -- A kickback scheme has earned the former operator of a Beckley business a two-year prison term.

U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin said Thursday that 72-year-old Alfred Williams also agreed in federal court in Beckley to pay up to $520,000 restitution.

Goodwin says Williams is the former operator of Williams Mechanical, which at the time was a plumbing subcontractor for several public works projects financed by government funds.

Williams admitted requiring at least a third of his workers to return cash from their paychecks as a condition of their employment over a 10-year period. He received up to $1,000 in kickbacks each week.

Goodwin says the kickbacks meant Williams paid his employees less than required prevailing wages and misreported the hours they actually worked.