A New York-based company has been accused of issuing fake safety certificates and cards to about 20,000 construction workers without providing the required training, including to a worker who died on the job, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Valor Security & Investigations issued the cards, which are required by New York City for construction workers on large projects, between December 2019 and April 2023. It was the third-largest producer of safety certifications in the city during that time, according to Bragg.
The cards said the recipients had undergone OSHA-30 training and/or 10 hours of Site Safety Training (SST). But emails obtained by investigators determined the cards were issued without training, sometimes as soon as an hour after the request.
Bragg also alleges that the death of 36-year-old Ivan A. Frias, who was issued one of the fake cards, could have been prevented if he had received the proper training. Frias died November 28, 2022, after falling 15 floors on a construction site at 263 West End Avenue.
“We allege that Valor Security & Investigations ran a fraudulent safety training school, falsely claiming that construction workers received the necessary training required to work on construction sites,” Bragg said. “We also allege that the death of one recipient, Ivan Frias, may have been prevented if not for the defendants’ reckless failure to train him.”
Six Valor executives and employees were indicted on charges of enterprise corruption, as well as second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing.
Nineteen, including a foreman for the NYC Housing Authority, are charged with acting as brokers between workers seeking cards and Valor, while four and Valor are charged with recklessly endangering the life of Frias.
