A construction company CEO was busted Tuesday for insurance fraud stemming from an investigation into a worker’s death at a Meatpacking District site last April.
Michael Cholowsky, 52, head of Sky Materials Corp., allegedly under-reported the payroll of his employees to score nearly $2 million in insurance premium breaks, authorities said.
Cholowsky and his company allegedly concealed more than $3 million in payroll resulting in a premium reduction of over $1 million from April 2014 to April 2015, authorities said.
And a year earlier, he and his company underreported $650,000 in payroll resulting in a premium reduction of $100,000, court papers show.
The crooked businessman is also accused of filing false documents with the Business Integrity Commission, claiming Sky Materials Corp. employed under 20 people when the real number was closer to 150, authorities said.
The fraud was uncovered during an investigation into the April 6 death of construction worker Carlos Moncayo, 22, who was crushed when an improperly secured pit collapsed.
Sky Materials Corp foreman Wilmer Cueva, 53, and another supervisor were previously charged with manslaughter for refusing to shut down the Ninth Avenue site even after an engineer warned them of the danger.
“In the construction industry, a lax approach to following proper procedures may be characteristic of a much more dangerous disregard for workers’ safety,” said District Attorney Cyrus Vance in a statement. “Dishonest business practices hinder oversight and create potentially life-threatening hazards for workers and residents.”