Six executives and employees of a construction worker training firm were nailed in an indictment for allegedly doling out sham certificates, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Wednesday.
Bragg stood alongside Department of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber and Buildings Commissioner James Oddo to allege that Valor Security and Investigations, also known simply as Valor, issued fake certificates and cards to some 20,000 individuals between December 2019 and April 2023, stating that they had completed the necessary safety training to work on construction sites when, in fact, the recipients had failed to undergo any coaching.
Bragg charged that the practice of issuing bogus credentials had deadly consequences. In 2022, Ivan Frias perished after plummeting from the 15th floor of a West End Avenue construction site — he had never taken the training.
Since 2017, construction workers are required to complete 40 hours participating in compliance education, including fall training before they are allowed to appear on job sites.
“Fraud can mean life or death,” Bragg said. “Although Valor has certified that he completed 10 hours of safety training, including the eight hours of fall protection, Valor never provided any training to Mr. Frias.”
Bragg also argued the scheme also puts the public at risk. If workers are not properly knowledgeable on how to safeguard worksites, then the public can also be harmed as a result.
“This is really part of our ongoing endeavor to safeguard all of us: workers, motorists, pedestrians and also to safeguard the industry,” Bragg said.
According to Oddo, seven New York City workers died in 2023 from construction accidents. While that is the lowest number of deaths in almost a decade, Oddo also conceded that even one is too many. Holding up a construction card, Oddo stated that any worker who received a SST card through Valor may have to be issued a new one and undergo new training.
“If the training provider’s registration is permanently revoked, that would impact any worker that obtained an SST card from that course,” Oddo said. “Our message to anyone who has received an SST card from this training provider is to immediately get retrained.”
Named in the indictment along with Valor were its president, Alexander Shaporov, 40; training director, Richard Marini, 70; instructor, Eliot Sosinov, 44; general manager, Nigina Zokirova, 24; compliance director, Marina Balzer, 28; and director of business development, Rimma Chakhalyan, 24.
They were each charged in the indictment with enterprise corruption, criminal possession of a forged instrument, and offering a false instrument for filing.
