Four contractors were charged with allegedly submitting fraudulent workers’ compensation insurance certificates and other documents in an effort to obtain home improvement licenses in Nassau County, prosecutors said.
The charges are part of a broader labor enforcement initiative that Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said has also returned nearly $650,000 in unpaid wages to 138 workers since the beginning of the year.
The four defendants and their companies were charged Sept. 2 following a joint investigation by the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, the state Workers’ Compensation Fraud Inspector General, the New York State Department of Financial Services and Nassau County Consumer Affairs.
Prosecutors said the allegedly fraudulent documents were submitted to Consumer Affairs between June 2025 and March 2026 as part of applications for home improvement contractor licenses.
According to the investigation, the documents allegedly included altered insurance policy expiration dates, policy numbers and addresses belonging to other companies, or coverage information that was completely false.
All four applications for residential construction licenses were denied, prosecutors said.
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, as well as 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, was charged with two counts each of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, as well as failure to secure workers’ compensation coverage.
James Fernandes, 39, of Carle Place, owner of Braga Industries Inc. in Carle Place, 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, Salazar, Kaffash and Mendel face up to 2 1/3 to seven years in prison. Fernandes faces up to one to four years.
“Since becoming District Attorney, I have put more resources toward protecting workers and cracking down on anyone trying to cheat the system,” Donnelly said.
The district attorney’s Major Financial Frauds Bureau has also pursued several wage theft and prevailing wage cases this year.
In June, prosecutors recovered more than $435,000 in unpaid wages owed to 38 employees of 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, but prosecutors said he violated that order for years.
The district attorney’s office said it ultimately took action against Scores’ assets to secure full payment to the workers.
Two other cases were resolved through non-prosecution agreements. One resulted in more than $60,000 being repaid to 30 construction workers who were not paid time-and-a-half for overtime. Another resulted in a contractor paying $35,000 to 25 employees who had not received the proper prevailing wage on Nassau County projects.
Jason Sichel and Neil Sims, co-owners of Timeless Body II LLC, a Garden City medspa, also pleaded guilty in January to failing to pay wages. Prosecutors said five employees were not properly paid, and $35,869 in restitution has been returned to workers.
In another case, Joseph Demasco, owner of BJA Renovations Corp. of North Babylon, was ordered in January to pay $81,592 in prevailing wages owed to more than 40 employees who worked on public school projects in the Merrick and Oceanside school districts between 2019 and 2021.
Altogether, Donnelly’s office said nearly $650,000 has been returned to 138 Nassau County workers this year.
The charges against Salazar, Kaffash, Mendel and Fernandes are accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
