D.A. Bragg: Final “Valor Security” Defendant Pleads Guilty For Operating Sham Safety Training School With Approx. 20K ‘Students’

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., today announced the guilty plea of RICHARD MARINI, 73, the Training Director for VALOR SECURITY, for operating a sham safety training school and recklessly endangering the life of Ivan Frias, who died after falling from the 15th floor of a West End Avenue construction site, by failing to provide him necessary training. MARINI pleaded guilty in New York State Supreme Court to 20 counts of Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree and one count of Reckless Endangerment in the Second Degree. Under the terms of his plea, MARINI is expected to be sentenced on October 5, 2026 to a promised term of 1.5-3 years in state prison.

MARINI is the final defendant to be convicted in this case. On June 11, 2025, Instructor ELLIOT SOSINOV was sentenced to forfeiture of $100,000. On October 3, 2025, President ALEXANDER SHAPOROV was sentenced to 1 year in jail, 100 hours of community service, and forfeiture of $100,000. VALOR SECURITY & INVESTIGATIONS lost its security license. On April 30, 2026, Director of Business Development RIMMA CHAKHALYAN, General Manager NIGINA ZOKIROVA and Compliance Director MARINA BALZER were each sentenced 200 hours of community service.

"Richard Marini, Valor Security's Training Director and the final defendant charged with operating this sham safety school, will serve time in state prison for jeopardizing the lives of thousands and recklessly endangering the life of Ivan Frias," said District Attorney Bragg. "Workers trusted Richard Marini to train them on how to work safely at construction sites, and that trust was broken. Unsafe work conditions will not be tolerated in New York."

DOI Commissioner Nadia I. Shihata said, "Today's final conviction in this case sends an unequivocal message - those who undermine construction safety to line their pockets will be held accountable. As this case and guilty plea make clear, running a sham safety training school issuing safety certificates and cards to approximately 20,000 students for a fee, but never actually providing the required training, has grave consequences. Tragically, a student who failed to receive required safety training from the defendants later fell to his death from the 15th story of a construction site. I want to thank the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and the City Department of Buildings for working with DOI to protect New Yorkers."

"The actions taken by the defendant deprived thousands of construction workers of life-saving construction safety training, which put New Yorkers across the city at greater risk," said Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani. "When the defendants in this case were first indicted, the Department of Buildings invalidated the thousands of Site Safety Training cards and certificates issued by Valor Security, and offered free training for the impacted workers so they could obtain legitimate ID cards. I thank Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his office for securing this guilty plea, as well as all of the investigators from the Department of Buildings and the Department of Investigation, for their work uncovering this illegal scheme."

According to court documents, statements made on the record, and as admitted in the defendant's guilty plea, between December 2019 and April 2023, MARINI issued safety certificates and cards to approximately 20,000 students. He issued cards for a fee certifying the required 40 hours of safety training for individuals working at construction sites without providing training. MARINI also recklessly endangered the life of Ivan Frias, who died after falling from the 15th floor of a West End Avenue construction site in 2022, by failing to provide him necessary training.

Additional details about the wider investigation are available here.

Assistant D.A. Rachana Pathak (Chief of the Worker Protection Unit) is handling the prosecution of this case under the supervision of Assistant D.A.s Christopher Conroy (Chief of the Rackets Bureau), and Judy Salwen (Deputy Chief of the Investigation Division) and Executive Assistant D.A. Jodie Kane (Chief of the Investigation Division). Danielle Corbett (Former Coordinator of the Worker Protection Unit) and Forensic Accountant Investigator Kenneth Zorn are providing valuable assistance in this case.

At DOI, the investigation was conducted by former Assistant Inspector General James Ferris, DOI's Office of the Inspector General for DOB and DOI's Digital Forensics Unit.

Mark Sanabria (Deputy Commissioner, Administration), Reynaldo Cabrera (Assistant Commissioner, Investigations and Compliance), Eugene Samojedny (Director, Internal Affairs & Discipline), Debra Palmieri Russo (Chief Learning Officer, Ret.), Alicia DeFilippo (Director, Strategic Enforcement), and members of the Training Compliance Unit at the NYC Department of Buildings contributed to this investigation.

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