A family that owns two Astoria discount shops is accused of underpaying workers, then pressuring them to keep quiet during a federal probe.

ASTORIA, QUEENS — The owners of two Astoria discount stores systematically underpaid their workers, then engaged in a coverup scheme by telling employees to lie to federal authorities who were investigating the shops, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The two stores, ABC Deals and Pick 99c, are based a few doors apart from each other on the same block of 31st Street between Ditmars Boulevard and 21st Avenue. The family-owned enterprises are managed by Mohammed Perwaiz and owned by his two sons, Hassan and Ahmad Perwaiz, according to the DOL.

A federal judge has now intervened in the case, which began in April when the DOL started investigating whether both stores were violating the federal wage law that requires overtime pay for more than 40 hours of work in a week.

In a visit to the stores that month, a manager told investigators that workers were paid 1.5 times their typical rate when they worked overtime — but that most employees only worked three to four days each week, the department said in a court filing.

By the following month, the stores' accountant told investigators that the businesses had no payroll records from before April, but pledged that they had started keeping records after the first meeting. Days later, the accountant gave DOL fraudulent time records, falsely stating that employees worked from only 9 a.m....

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