Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr. today announced the guilty pleas of VALOR SECURITY & INVESTIGATIONS (“VALOR”) and its President ALEXANDER SHAPOROV, 42, for operating a sham safety training school. VALOR and SHAPOROV each pleaded guilty in a New York State Supreme Court to one count of Attempted Enterprise Corruption, ten counts of Offering a False Instrument and one count of Reckless Endangerment. Under the terms of their pleas, SHAPOROV is expected to be sentenced on October 3, 2025, to a promised term of 1 year in jail, 100 hours of community service, and the forfeiture of $100,000. VALOR also lost its security license.
“Valor Security is facing accountability for operating a sham safety training school, imperiling the workers in one of New York’s most dangerous industries. Valor’s President, Alexander Shaporov, also pleaded guilty to recklessly endangering Ivan Frias, who tragically died when he fell from a construction site without proper training,” said District Attorney Bragg. “We will continue to root out fraud with our partners at DOI and DOB. If you are a victim of dangerous work conditions, please call our Worker Protection Unit at (646) 712-0298.”
DOI Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber said, “Today, Alexander Shaporov, the former President of Valor Security & Investigations, and that entity, acknowledge that they ran a sham safety training school that issued certificates to workers without providing essential training. One of those workers fell to his death from the 15th floor of a construction site. Ignoring the City’s construction training standards poses grave risks and can have tragic consequences. DOI thanks the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the City Department of Buildings for its continued commitment to hold accountable those who compromise the safety of New York City’s construction sites.”
According to court documents, statements made on the record, and as admitted in the defendants’ guilty pleas, between December 2019 and April 2023, VALOR and SHARPOROV issued safety certificates and cards to approximately 20,000 students. The defendants issued cards for a fee certifying the required 40 hours of safety training for individuals working at construction sites without providing training. They also recklessly endangered the life of Ivan Frias, who died after falling from the 15th floor of a West End Avenue construction site in 2022, by failing to provide him necessary training.
Additional details about the wider investigation are available here.
Assistant D.A. Rachana Pathak (Chief of the Worker Protection Unit) is handling the prosecution of this case under the supervision of Assistant D.A.s Christopher Beard (Deputy Chief of the Rackets Bureau), Christopher Conroy (Chief of the Rackets Bureau), and Judy Salwen (Deputy Chief of the Investigation Division) and Executive Assistant D.A. Jodie Kane (Chief of the Investigation Division). Danielle Corbett (Coordinator of the Worker Protection Unit) and Forensic Accountant Investigator Kenneth Zorn are providing valuable assistance in this case.
At DOI, the investigation was conducted by Assistant Inspector General James Ferris and DOI’s Digital Forensics Unit and was supervised by Deputy Commissioner of Strategic Initiatives Christopher Ryan, and Deputy Commissioner/Chief of Investigations Dominick Zarrella.
Mark Sanabria (Assistant Commissioner, Investigations and Compliance), Reynaldo Cabrera (Executive Project Officer), Eugene Samojedny (Director, Internal Affairs & Discipline), Debra Palmieri Russo (Chief Learning Officer), Alicia DeFilippo (Deputy Director, Course Provider Administration), and members of the Training Compliance Unit at the NYC Department of Buildings contributed to this investigation.
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