NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — Numerous workers from one of the city’s largest producers of safety certificates for construction workers were indicted Wednesday—accused of issuing those certificates without proper training in a scheme that allegedly led to the death of a worker at a Manhattan construction site in 2022.
“In the construction industry, fraud can mean life or death—not only for the individuals working on the site, but for the general public that moves around them every single day,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.
According to the district attorney’s office, Valor Security & Investigations (Valor) allegedly issued safety certificates and cards to about 20,000 construction site workers for a fee between December 2019 and April 2023 without actually providing the required 40 hours of safety training.
The accusations against Valor and its employees contradict the company’s claims that it “[assures] our clients remain in full compliance with all regulatory agencies.”
With approximately 20,000 students, Valor was the third-largest producer of safety certifications in the city during the time period.
Employees at Valor allegedly formed longstanding payment arrangements with brokers to obtain 40-hour safety cards, supervisor cards and specialized training cards in an expedited amount of time, even within the same day, and had the cards backdated, prosecutors said.
Valor charged between $300 and $600 per filing for a basic safety training card, with many of the payments coming in cash, officials said.
Emails and texts between brokers and Valor employees furthered the fraud, prosecutors allege.
For example, on Jan. 28, 2021, Valor president Alexander Shaporov, 40, emailed his staff dozens of photographs and identification cards of “trainees” with the subject line “40 SST and whoever doesn’t have OSHA MAKE ONE UP.”
In another incident, indicted broker and NYCHA employee Colm McGread, 35, texted Valor training director Richard Marini, 70, to ask how long it would take to obtain a 40 hour safety training certificate, to which Marini replied “Tomorrow after 5pm.”
Prosecutors allege that Valor filed documents with the Department of Buildings claiming to have given safety trainings to hundreds of students, while video surveillance showed empty classrooms; undercover investigators received 40-hour certificates within an hour, despite not taking any classes; and at least four Valor employees submitted fraudulent resumes to OSHA to obtain teaching credentials and the ability to issue safety certificates.
Financial records also indicate that nearly $1 million in Zelle payments were deposited into Shaporov’s personal account, many of which prosecutors said were consistent with the small amounts Valor allegedly charged for “safety courses.”
Six Valor executives and employees are charged with enterprise corruption and related fraud charges, while 19 “brokers” across private construction companies and one NYCHA employee are charged with various counts of forgery charges.
On Nov. 28, 2022, 36-year-old construction worker and Mexican immigrant Ivan Frias fell from the 15th floor of a construction site at 263 West End Ave. on the Upper West Side and died, prosecutors said.
Valor filed paperwork certifying Frias completed 10 hours of safety training, including eight on fall protection. He allegedly never completed this training.
Four Valor executives and employees are charged with reckless endangerment in relation to his death, as is the broker who allegedly provided the fake certificate.
“Building construction-related fatalities dropped to a nine-year-low in 2023, thanks in part to the city’s construction safety training requirements for workers on larger work sites,” DOB Commissioner Jimmy Oddo said. “Construction safety training is helping to save lives, but the actions of these defendants could have undermined this progress in the interest of quick profits.”