Dive Transient:
- The Manhattan District Lawyer’s Workplace has added 5 new state and federal company companions to its Development Fraud Job Drive, which investigates and prosecutes corruption and fraud in New York Metropolis’s development trade.
- The state’s Division of Labor, the New York State Insurance coverage Fund, the state Workplace of the Inspector Common, OSHA and the Wage and Hour Division of the federal Labor Division will be a part of the Job Drive, District Lawyer Alvin Bragg Jr.’s workplace introduced final week.
- Fashioned by the DA’s workplace in 2015, the duty drive’s companions “examine legal well being and security lapses within the development trade, together with worksite fatalities and security hazards, and problems with development corruption and fraud within the New York Metropolis metro space,” the announcement states.
Dive Perception:
The brand new additions be a part of unique activity drive members:
- The New York Metropolis Metropolis Division of Investigation.
- The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Workplace of the Inspector Common.
- The MTA Workplace of the Inspector Common.
- The Enterprise Integrity Fee for the Metropolis of New York.
Companies within the activity drive meet month-to-month to analyze crimes within the trade, whereas additionally recommending reforms and public coverage to handle systemic issues in development.
“Development fraud can fleece the general public, harm law-abiding enterprise homeowners and endanger the lives of staff,” Bragg stated within the announcement. “The growth of the Development Fraud Job Drive demonstrates the seriousness of our dedication to rooting out criminal activity and making a protected and truthful trade.”
Since 2018, the Job Drive has recovered over $6 million in stolen wages, based on the announcement.
Latest Manhattan case
The identical day as the duty drive announcement, Bragg introduced two indictments for Steven Lyon, an authorized public accountant in Edgewater, New Jersey, for allegedly defrauding the state insurance coverage fund out of over $10 million in staff’ compensation premium funds.
Lyon reportedly doctored payroll paperwork for staff on scaffolding corporations. He faces three counts of first diploma insurance coverage fraud, 5 counts of second diploma insurance coverage fraud, eight counts of first diploma falsifying enterprise data and 9 counts of second diploma forgery in a New York State Supreme Court docket indictment.
The costs state that from March 2018 to March 2020, Lyon allegedly filed false paperwork, lowering the payroll dimension of ANAAR Development & Contracting Corp. of Queens, New York, owned by Sadaf Bhatti. In consequence, ANAAR underpaid NYSIF by over $1.4 million.
ANAAR Development and Bhatti additionally face fees for fraud, falsifying data and forgery.
In a separate case, Lyon was arraigned in January within the state Supreme Court docket for equally defrauding the state insurance coverage fund. Defendants in that case — Lengthy Island Metropolis-based masonry subcontractor Oneteam Restoration Inc. and proprietor Mario Rojas Jr. — every pleaded responsible Could 4 to at least one depend of first diploma falsifying enterprise data. They have been sentenced to three-year conditional discharges.
The case towards Lyon for that alleged fraud scheme stays open. Development Dive couldn’t find contact data for Lyons nor his legal professional.
