Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr. speaks during a Feb. 28 press conference on the fraudulent safety training.
Photo: Manhattan District Attorney’s Office
New York — The former president of a training school charged with selling construction safety certificates and OSHA training cards to approximately 20,000 untrained “students” has pleaded guilty.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on June 6 announced the guilty pleas of Alexander Shaporov and the entity Valor Security & Investigations to one count each of attempted enterprise corruption, 10 counts of offering a false instrument and one count of reckless endangerment.
Shaporov, who’s expected to be sentenced on Oct. 3, has a promised term of one year in jail, 100 hours of community service and a $100,000 fine.
As for Valor Security & Investigations, it has lost its security license.
Beginning in December 2019, Valor arranged with brokers to obtain 40-hour safety cards, supervisor cards and specialized training cards. Many of the documents were backdated. The company charged people between $300 and $600 for the fake cards. The training documents were sold through April 2023, according to court documents.
In 2022, a worker with fraudulent training paperwork died after falling from the 15th floor of a building under construction.
“Valor Security is facing accountability for operating a sham safety training school, imperiling the workers in one of New York’s most dangerous industries,” Bragg said in a press release.
NYC Department of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber added: “Ignoring the city’s construction training standards poses grave risks and can have tragic consequences.”
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Original article published by Safety+Health an NSC publication