A Brooklyn-based company and two men are facing criminal charges after prosecutors say they ran a scheme selling fraudulent construction safety certifications for $500 apiece, no classroom time required. The Kings County District Attorney's Office announced the indictment of company owner Lutfur Rahman, his associate Mohammed Tushar, and their training provider, Redcode Inc., accusing them of manufacturing and selling fake OSHA and Site Safety Training cards out of locations in Brooklyn and Queens.
The indictment, unveiled Tuesday by Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez alongside NYC Department of Investigation Commissioner Nadia I. Shihata and NYC Department of Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani, names Redcode's operations at 529 McDonald Avenue in Brooklyn and 146-04 Hillside Avenue in Queens, according to the Kings County District Attorney's Office. Prosecutors say the case grew out of an undercover NYC Department of Investigation operation conducted between April and July 2025, during which agents were sold fraudulent Site Safety Training and OSHA cards without ever attending a safety class. As part of the alleged con, undercover agents were reportedly asked to sign false attendance sheets to make it look like they had completed the required coursework.
News of the indictment first circulated through a Department of Buildings
social media post amplifying the Brooklyn DA's announcement Tuesday. The Department of Buildings responded swiftly to the fraud allegations by invalidating every Site Safety Training card Redcode had issued, effectively barring any worker who obtained credentials through the company from entering complex NYC job sites until they secure valid replacements. The agency has stressed that letting untrained workers onto active construction sites creates serious public safety risks, the same rationale behind the underlying training mandate itself.
Charges and Court Proceedings
Rahman, Tushar, and Redcode Inc. were arraigned before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on an indictment that includes first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, second-degree receiving reward for official misconduct, and second-degree falsifying business records. All three defendants were released without bail and are due back in court on November 4, 2026.
The case touches a training system meant to be a bedrock of construction safety in the five boroughs. Under Local Law 196 of 2017, construction and demolition workers on job sites that require a site safety plan or a designated site manager must complete 40 hours of Site Safety Training, while supervisors must log 62 hours of coursework, according to the OSHA Education Center. The law was enacted after a rise in construction injuries and fatalities across the city, and city buildings rules separately authorize civil penalties of up to $5,000 per untrained worker against property owners, permit holders, and employers who let uncertified personnel onto regulated sites, per Safety Dynamics LLC. Permit holders are also required to keep daily logs documenting worker certifications.
Part of a Broader Crackdown
This is not the first time city and borough authorities have unwound a fraudulent safety-card operation, and it will not likely be the last. In April 2024, the Department of Buildings moved to revoke the approved training provider status of Manhattan-based Valor Security & Investigations after a Manhattan District Attorney indictment revealed the firm had sold bogus safety cards to roughly 20,000 workers without ever providing instruction. That prosecution included a reckless endangerment charge tied to the November 2022 fatal fall of 36-year-old construction worker Ivan Frias, who had been fraudulently certified as having completed fall-prevention training he never actually received; Valor's former president pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment in June 2025.
Closer to home, Brooklyn prosecutors secured a conviction last year in a similar scheme. In April 2025, Bensonhurst resident Benedetto Bonello was sentenced in Brooklyn Supreme Court to six months in jail for making and selling fake OSHA-30 and scaffolding cards through his firm, National Site Safety LLC, following an earlier undercover DOI sting, as Hoodline reported on the Bonello sentencing. Bonello had originally been indicted in 2023 alongside two other Brooklyn residents.
Taken together, the Redcode case marks the latest move in what prosecutors describe as an ongoing, multi-year joint crackdown by the Brooklyn District Attorney, the Department of Investigation, and the Department of Buildings against fraudulent safety certifiers. Mandatory training requirements under Local Law 196 were designed to sharply reduce site accidents, but vendors selling $500 shortcuts undermine that entire regulatory framework, prosecutors say. The Valor case in particular illustrates how untrained workers carrying fraudulent certificates have been tied to fatal site accidents in the past.
What Comes Next
Regulators have also kept adjusting the underlying training requirements themselves. Effective this year under Local Law 10 of 2026, the Department of Buildings updated Site Safety Training renewal standards to require a mandatory two-hour Mental Health Awareness course, replacing the previous Drug and Alcohol Awareness requirement. Workers are still permitted to renew expired cards up to one year past their expiration date, per city guidance.
Several questions remain unresolved as the Redcode case moves through Brooklyn Supreme Court. It is not yet known exactly how many construction workers purchased credentials through the company, whether contractors who employed those workers will face civil penalties from the Department of Buildings, or whether any workplace accidents occurred on sites where Redcode-certified laborers were working. For now, any worker holding a Redcode-issued card will need to obtain a legitimate replacement before returning to a regulated job site.
