New York, NY – A former city buildings inspector was busted for selling fake safety training certificates required to work on high-rises.
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The arrest of Michael Dinardo, 52, comes after a series of Daily News probes uncovered a thriving black market in the coveted certificates, which are issued through the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Dinardo, a Buildings Department inspector from 2004 to 2007, was charged in Manhattan Federal Court with selling 47 training cards to city Investigations Department undercover agents who did not complete any training.
The city requires that all hardhats working on buildings of 15 stories or more complete a 10-hour OSHA-approved training course. Workers in certain high-risk operations, including tower crane operators, are required to complete 30 hours of safety training.
Dinardo, an OSHA-authorized instructor for the 10- and 30-hour courses, trafficked in those cards as well as certificates for Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER), in which he had no training.
In January, Dinardo provided undercover investigators with a price list: $100 for a 10-hour card; $275 for a 30-hour card and $325 for a HAZWOPER certificate, prosecutors said.
Dinardo faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of conspiracy to defraud OSHA.
In a series of reports in the last two years, the Daily News has uncovered widespread fraud in OSHA safety training. Of the four people nationwide whose trainer status has been revoked by OSHA for fraud, three were first exposed by the Daily News.
The Daily News launched its first probe after a bogus training certificate surfaced in the hands of an unqualified worker at a trouble-plagued luxury condo in Chelsea only days after Mayor Bloomberg announced the cards would be required for all tower crane operators.
The trainer, Tyrone Nichols, was barred after the News broke the story in June 2008.
OSHA revoked the status of the other two, Darell Inniss and Grover Drakeford, after a Daily News reporter infiltrated their training class, held in the backroom of a Bronx bar. After two hours, with breaks for beer, he was issued an OSHA card certifying he’d received 10 hours training.
OSHA cited the Daily News sting in a memo to its training centers announcing beefed up new guidelines designed to thwart fraud.
New measures include more spot checks of training and the creation of a watchlist of disciplined trainers. But abuses continue.
Last July, a School Construction Authority investigator bought six fake OSHA cards, and a month later The News uncovered another bogus training card – signed by barred trainer Tyrone Nichols – in the hands of an immigrant worker who said he had received no training.
Another disgraced New York trainer, Larry Fontanez, was indicted in Queens in 2008. Charged with possession of a forged instrument, a bogus OSHA card, he is scheduled to appear in Queens Supreme Court on March 25.
i agree that all of these regulations are meant for our safety, but this is what happens when regulations are put into place that one cannot not achieve so easily. so make things easier for everyone that they should be able to get the certificates legally.
Why should they make things easier? It’s a certification that saves lives. Is fraud more important than a life?
Not all regulations are meant for our safety. Most are just burdens on business owners.
at least no yid is involved.
Conceptually, just what is the difference between a falsified safety training certificate and a receipt showing an inflated contribution to a Spinka institution?
And is the provider of a falsified safety training certificate any more or less likely than the purveyor of a falsified donation tax receipt to provide a falsified kashrus certificate?
Something to think about!
I personally hired an instructor to give the 10hr + 30 site safety training course for ten people we all chipped in it was around 300$ per a person and I was shocked that after two hrs and a simple quiz he started handing out osha certificates and I.d cards that people were able to use to get themselves site safety and superintendents licensing from the DOB this was in the aftermath of the crane collapses in N.Y.C where people were seriously hurt and killed due to negligence or lack of proper safety training I was afraid to speak up and say anything because I was working as a building manager at the time and I would have lost my job and there was the issue od mesirah I am glad and relieved to see that they are cracking down on these fraudulent instructors that are putting workers lives at risk by handing out certificates to non qualified parties.
great not only are Gloombergs condos ugly, but now they will be falling apart soon. anybody hear that the new “citifield” is falling apart already?
this is entry level nonsense. it is a shame that a man with over 20 years must take this class but if he wants to work he must. i am an outreach trainer and i will train any union member at any time cheap. i also have trained men who have 20 years experiance who needed the class because they have been doing thier trade unsafe for 20 years