City investigators slapped the cuffs on a Whitestone man accused of having fake safety certification while supervising a Manhattan community center’s reconstruction.
Andreas Tsamos, 49, served as site safety supervisor for renovations to the Fulton Houses Community Center in Manhattan, according to the city Department of Investigation (DOI). Inspectors visited the site on Nov. 2 and found many safety problems including a locked emergency fire exit door, a missing fall protection guardrail system in a work zone and an improperly installed scaffold.
Investigators returned to the site on Nov. 3 and asked Tsamos, an employee of Gem Quality Corporation in Brooklyn, for his safety credentials. He allegedly produced two safety certificates indicating that he completed 10-hour and 30-hour OSHA courses.
The DOI indicated that the certificates had completion dates but did not indicate course names. The certificates also indicated that the training courses were at “360Training.com”; the DOI contacted the company and found that no such individual named Tsamos completed training courses on the certification date.
Tsamos was charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument and faces up to a year behind bars if convicted. The Fulton Houses Community Center construction site was shut down until the New York City Housing Authority names a new site safety representative.
“Individuals overseeing site safety are charged with making sure that construction sites are safe and workers are not injured,” DOI Commissioner Mark Peters said in a statement on Nov. 6. “This manager, instead, relied upon false documents at a site with multiple other safety problems. Professionals who place construction workers in danger will not be tolerated and will face arrest.”
