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Brooklyn Contractor Linked to Fatal Construction Accident Allegedly in U.S. Illegally

Posted on Nov 25, 2008

According to an announcement made by the Department of Investigation (DOI), a Brooklyn man who was the contractor at a fatal construction accident at West 111th Street in Manhattan, has been arrested and faces deportation.

Adal Melek Afzal was arrested under another name, “Malik Hussain,” but was later identified as a Pakistani national who is allegedly in the United States illegally. Investigations, which included fingerprint comparisons, confirmed that they were two different individuals. Hussain’s fingerprint card revealed that he is missing a finger, while the man in custody had all ten fingers.

The DOI’s investigation is ongoing and has already indicated that the identity fraud began all the way back in 2005 or earlier. “DOI peeled away layers of deception in a case involving brazen fraud, unsafe construction practices and a worker’s tragic death. Thankfully, the fraudulently obtained license at the heart of this outrage has been surrendered and the individual who used it is in custody,” said the Department’s Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn.

Currently, DOI is conducting an investigation of the September 11, 2008 construction accident which killed Miguel Rodriguez, 38. Rodriguez was operating a suspended scaffold that had been rigged to the building by employees of Classic Painting & Restoration of Brooklyn, when he was fatally injured.

The same day of the accident, the owner of Classic Painting, who was later found to be Afzal, was arrested. Afzal was arrested on charges of instructing another employee, Jinal Patel, to pose as a Department of Buildings-certified rigging foreman at the construction site. During the arrest and subsequent investigation, Afzal continuously referred to himself as Hussain and even provided two photo identifications, a city-issued Speical Rigger’s license and a New York State driver’s license, to investigators. Each piece of identification had Hussain’s name, but Afzal’s photograph.

When DOI reviewed Hussain’s Special Rigger’s License, they found that the photo of the individual who was licensed originally in January 2007, was a different person than the one arrested on September 11.