Prosecutors say fraudulent insurance documents were submitted for home improvement licenses as separate labor cases returned unpaid wages to 138 workers
MINEOLA, NY – Four contractors are facing criminal charges in a Nassau County labor fraud crackdown that prosecutors say uncovered fraudulent insurance documents used in attempts to obtain home improvement licenses, while separate enforcement efforts have returned nearly $650,000 to 138 workers this year.
Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced the cases following a multi-agency investigation involving her office, Nassau County Consumer Affairs, the New York State Workers’ Compensation Fraud Inspector General and the New York State Department of Financial Services.
Prosecutors said four defendants and their companies were charged Sept. 2 with submitting fraudulent workers’ compensation insurance certificates and other documents to Nassau County Consumer Affairs between June 2025 and March.
According to the investigation, the documents allegedly included altered insurance policy expiration dates, policy numbers and addresses belonging to other companies, or insurance coverage information that did not exist.
All four applications for residential construction licenses were denied.
Fabio Salazar, 52, of Maspeth, owner of Always First Restoration LLC in Queens, was charged with four counts each of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, along with failure to secure workers’ compensation coverage.
Michael Kaffash, 40, of Woodmere, owner of Kingspoint Builders LLC in Hempstead, was charged with second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing and failure to secure workers’ compensation coverage.
Jonathan Mendel, 45, of Cedarhurst, owner of JRM Development LLC in Lawrence, faces two counts each of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, along with a workers’ compensation charge.
James Fernandes, 39, of Carle Place, owner of Braga Industries Inc., was charged with first-degree offering a false instrument for filing and failure to secure workers’ compensation coverage.
All four pleaded not guilty and were released on their own recognizance.
If convicted, prosecutors said Salazar, Kaffash and Mendel could face up to 2⅓ to seven years in prison. Fernandes could face up to one to four years.
The contractor cases are part of a broader labor enforcement effort by the district attorney’s Major Financial Frauds Bureau.
Since the beginning of the year, the DA’s office and its partners have returned nearly $650,000 to 138 Nassau County workers through multiple cases involving unpaid wages and prevailing wage violations.
The largest recovery came in June, when prosecutors obtained more than $435,000 in unpaid wages owed to 38 employees by Westbury Fish owner Richard Scores.
Scores had pleaded guilty in 2017 to offering a false instrument for filing and failure to pay wages and was ordered to pay restitution. Prosecutors said years of efforts to enforce that order ultimately resulted in full payment to the workers.
Other cases resulted in more than $60,000 being returned to 30 construction workers who had not received required overtime pay and $35,000 being paid to 25 employees who were not paid the proper prevailing wage on multiple Nassau County projects.
Additional prosecutions resulted in $35,869 in restitution to five former employees of Garden City medspa Timeless Body II LLC and $81,592 in prevailing wages owed to more than 40 employees who worked on public school projects.
The charges against the four contractors are accusations, and each defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Key Points
- Four contractors are accused of submitting fraudulent workers’ compensation insurance documents while seeking Nassau County home improvement licenses.
- Prosecutors said all four license applications were denied, and the defendants pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges.
- Nassau County labor prosecutions have returned nearly $650,000 to 138 workers since the beginning of the year.
