Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg, Jr. introduced two indictments of a licensed public accountant for defrauding the New York State Insurance coverage Fund (NYSIF) of greater than $10 million in employees’ compensation insurance coverage premium funds.
Accountant Steve Lyon Lyon was charged with a number of counts of insurance coverage fraud in a New York State Supreme Court docket indictment. Lyon is accused of submitting doctored payroll-related paperwork for employees of façade restoration and scaffolding firms.
In accordance with courtroom paperwork and statements in courtroom, Lyon engaged in a scheme with Anaar Development & Contracting Corp. and its proprietor Sadaf Bhatti, Anaar, a Contemporary Meadows-based masonry subcontractor specializing in constructing façade repairs and waterproofing, and Bhatti utilized Lyon to finish the agency’s premium audits. Although the corporate had a privately retained tax accountant, Lyon acted as the corporate’s consultant throughout NYSIF’s obligatory annual audits.
As alleged, from March 10, 2018, to March 10, 2020, Lyon filed payroll-related paperwork with the Division of Labor and NYSIF, the state’s largest employees’ compensation supplier. The filings with NYSIF drastically diminished the dimensions of Anaar’s workforce and payroll. NYSIF relied on these false paperwork to calculate the corporate’s employees’ compensation insurance coverage premiums, grossly under-charging the corporate in consequence. Over the course of the scheme, Anaar underreported its payroll by greater than $4.5 million and underpaid NYSIF by greater than $1.4 million.
Lyon can be charged in a separate indictment for working an identical scheme for 2 Lengthy Island Metropolis-based firms, DNA Contracting LLC., and Spring Protected & Sound Inc. As alleged, from January 1, 2019, to March 1, 2022, Lyon misrepresented the whole workforce and payroll for each firms throughout quarterly filings thereby defrauding NYSIF of greater than $9.4 million.
In January, Lyon was arraigned in New York State Supreme Court docket for equally defrauding NYSIF. Defendants in that case — OneTeam Restoration Inc., a Lengthy Island Metropolis-based masonry subcontractor, and its proprietor Mario Rojas, Jr. — every pleaded responsible to falsifying enterprise information and have been sentenced to three-year conditional discharges. The case towards Lyon stays open and pending.
Supply: Manhattan District Legal professional’s Workplace
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