LIC Contractor Indicted After Defrauding State Of Over $7 Million: DA

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — A Long Island City-based contractor and its owner were indicted after reporting a false workforce size to New York’s insurance carrier to save money on premiums, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. announced.

Oneteam Restoration and its owner Mario Rojas Jr. were indicted with insurance fraud and falsifying business records after filing false documents to the New York State Fund to save on workers' compensation insurance premiums for two years since 2019, Bragg said.

The company’s accountant, Steven Lyon, from Edgewater, New Jersey, was also indicted with the same charges after filing the false documents to the insurance carrier, prosecutors said.

The contractor, which specialized in building façade repairs and waterproofing, and Rojas hired Lyon to prepare and file the company’s quarterly payroll reports, as well as serve as representative during mandatory annual audits, the district attorney said.

Lyon used separate emails between Jan. 2019 to May 2021 to file payroll-related documents with the Department of Labor and NYSIF, Bragg said. He would send accurate records to the DOL, but reduced the size of Oneteam’s workforce in the files submitted to NYSIF.

By understating the company’s workforce, the company paid less in workers' compensation insurance premiums. Oneteam underreported its payroll to NYSIF by more than $16 million, and underpaid the carrier by more than $7 million, prosecutors said.