PROVIDENCE — A union official and a contractor face up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to charges in an unlawful payment scheme, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Providence announced Friday.

Nicholas Manocchio, the director of the New England Regional Organizing Fund (NEROF) of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) pleaded guilty to conspiring to receive money and other things of value from building contractors whose employees LIUNA represented, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

Gerald Diodati, a construction contractor, pleaded guilty to conspiring to make unlawful payments to Laborers International Union of North America officials, including Manocchio, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

The defendants entered the pleas, which had been expected, in separate hearings before U.S. District Judge William E. Smith Providence.

In May, a third defendant, Harold Tillinghast, a former organizer for NEROF, pleaded guilty to conspiring to receive money and other things of value from contractors whose employees LIUNA represented.

The Labor Management Relations Act, known as the Taft-Hartley Act, prohibits employers from paying money or other things of value to “any labor organization, or any officer or employee thereof which represents, seeks to represent, or would admit to membership, any employees of such employer,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. The act also prohibits union officers and employees from receiving any such payments.

The U.S. Attorney’s office gave the following account in a news release:

Trial lawyer Vincent Falvo, of the Justice Department’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, said that, if the case went to trial, the government would prove that the defendants engaged in a conspiracy to direct cash payments and other things of value from Hemphill Construction and Rhode Island Demolition to LIUNA officials and employees.

Diodati was an estimator for Hemphill Construction, and owned and operated Rhode Island Demolition.

Beginning in April 2003, Tillinghast conspired with Diodati to accept things of value from Diodati and others who, Tillinghast believed, were acting in the interest of Hemphill Construction and Rhode Island Demolition.

In May 2003, Diodati and another person acting on behalf of Hemphill Construction gave Tillinghast $2,000 in cash. In December 2003, a person acting in the interest of Hemphill Construction gave Tillinghast $500.

Also in December 2003, Manocchio and Tillinghast agreed that Manocchio would receive a “Christmas card” from a person acting for Hemphill Construction and Rhode Island Demolition. On Dec. 22, Tillinghast met with a person representing Hemphill Construction and accepted a cash payment of $2,000 in a Christmas card for Manocchio, which he later gave to Manocchio in Manocchio’s office.

The three defendants are free on bond pending sentencing, which is scheduled for Nov. 13. The statutory maximum penalty is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.