A 38-year-old man, Miguel Rodriguez died in a scaffolding accident at the Morningside Heights construction site on Thursday.
The victim fell five stories to his death when his scaffolding collapsed. He was wearing a safety harness, but it was not tethered to the building.
Malik Hussain, 26, who is the owner of Classic Painting & Restoration Inc., told city officials probing the death that there was a rigging foreman present at the Morningside Heights site, a safety measure required by law, the Department of Investigation said.
The construction site was being supervised by a bogus foreman, Jinal Patel (aged 23) who lacked the training and certification required to oversee the construction sites. He was arrested for presenting a fake identification card claiming that he was the foreman, despite a lack of training and certification, the department said.
Both Hussain and Patel were charged with criminal impersonation, which is punishable by up to one year in prison.
Rather than hiring a certified foreman, the owner Malik Hussain asked an unqualified worker to pose as a foreman and even allowed him to use his identification card. Then, after the co-worker died in the scaffolding accident, the unqualified employee tried to keep us that false appearance and misguiding the police.
The Department of Buildings suspended Hussainโs special riggerโs license and stopped work at 28 other sites he was overseeing.
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