Father-Son Duo Operated School Buses With Fraudulent Insurance: DA

VALLEY STREAM, NY. — A father and son who co-own a school bus company were arraigned Tuesday and face charges of insurance fraud in Nassau County, the District Attorney’s office said.

The District Attorney’s office said 52-year-old Malik Turnage Sr. and his 27-year-old son, Malik Turnage Jr. provided forged certificates of insurance to the Valley Stream Central High School District.

According to the charges, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said, the school district requested updated certificates of liability insurance from its bus providers in October of 2023.

Turnage Jr. reportedly emailed two COIs to the district on Nov. 1, 2023, listing Integon National Insurance Company as Cheese Bus’s insurance carrier, then emailed the district two additional documents eight hours later, Donnelly said.

Those documents were dated Nov. 1, 2023, and again listed Integon as the provider with the same policy number as the first documents, the DA said.

Upon review, the school district found that the COIs were forged, Donnelly said. Cheese Bus did have insurance, investigators said, but the insurance didn’t cover its contract with Valley Stream Central High School. The District Attorney’s office said records from the insurance company showed no record of Cheese Bus ever having insurance for its Valley Stream contract.

"These defendants were trusted with safely transporting young students, but they chose to allegedly cut corners and put lives at risk," Donnelly said. "Operating school buses without proper insurance is not only illegal, but it’s also completely reckless and unacceptable. My office will never tolerate anyone who gambles with the safety of our children or tries to skirt the responsibility of protecting them."

Edward Sapone, the attorney for the Turnages, told Patch that he was confident that justice would arrive.

"I am confident that the system is going to get it right and justice will be done," Sapone said. "There is a lot of information here that I plan to share so that the right outcome will result."

The men are due back in court on Nov. 5. They face four charges of first-degree offering a false instrument and two charges of fifth-degree insurance fraud, the DA said.