Defendants Allegedly Ignored Workers’ Safety Concerns, Industry Protocols
And Concerns Expressed by Adjacent Property Owners
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, together with New York City Department of
Investigation Commissioner Margaret Garnett, New York City Department of Buildings
Commissioner Melanie La Rocca, and Occupational Safety and Health Administration Regional
Administrator Richard Mendelson, announced that the operator of a Sunset Park
construction company, two other men and two businesses, have been indicted on manslaughter
and other charges after a wall collapsed at an excavation site, killing a construction worker, Luis
Almonte Sanchez, who was buried under thousands of pounds of debris. Three additional
defendants have been indicted on lesser related charges.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “Despite a construction-related conviction for attempted
bribery a few years earlier, the construction company operator allegedly continued to play fast
and loose with safety protocols, taking shortcuts to increase profit margins – this time with
deadly consequences. We allege that the dangerous conditions at the site – which had been
reported by laborers and neighbors – were ignored by these defendants and directly led to the
death of Luis Almonte Sanchez, a 47-year-old family man. As new construction continues to
proliferate in Brooklyn, it is incumbent upon builders to put safety first. As District Attorney, I
am committed to protecting the safety of all workers.”
Commissioner Garnett said, “This indictment demonstrates the tragic results that we have
seen far too often when individuals who purport to be construction professionals ignore safety
problems and warnings. These defendants discounted the City’s construction code, making up
the rules as they went along, creating the perfect conditions for a disaster that ultimately cost a
worker his life, according to the charges. DOI thanks the Brooklyn District Attorney, the City
Department of Buildings, and our other partners for their collaboration and commitment on this
investigation.”
Commissioner La Rocca said, “Cutting corners on the work site costs lives. Luis Almonte
Sanchez is no longer with us due to the defendants’ callous disregard for even the most basic
excavation safety regulations, in service of padding their own bank accounts. I want to thank my
colleagues District Attorney Gonzalez and Commissioner Garnett for their ongoing partnership
during this investigation. This indictment sends a resolute message to bad actors in the
construction industry: The City will not tolerate those who put profit ahead of the lives of their
workers.”
Regional Administrator Mendelson said, “OSHA will continue to work with our law
enforcement colleagues to achieve our mutual goal of safe and healthful workplaces by ensuring
that employers comply with our agencies’ applicable laws and regulations, and by holding
employers accountable if they disregard their safety and health responsibilities.”
The District Attorney identified the defendants as Jiaxi “Jimmy” Liu, 46, of Staten
Island; Wilson Garcia Jr., 45, of Staten Island; Paul Bailey, 56, of Pelham, New York; Jia Rong
“Tommy” Liu, 49, of Brooklyn; Siu Wah Maria Cheung-Mui, 31, of Brooklyn; Cindy Chai, 42,
of Staten Island; Bailey’s Engineering, of Manhattan; WSC Group LLC, of Brooklyn; and WS
Construction Inc., of Brooklyn.
Jiaxi Liu, Garcia, Bailey, WSC Group LLC, and Bailey’s Engineering PC are charged
with second-degree manslaughter; Jiaxi Liu, WSC Group LLC, Garcia, Bailey, Bailey’s
Engineering PC and Cheung-Miu are charged with criminally negligent homicide. Jiaxi and Jia
Rong Liu, WSC Group, Garcia, Bailey, Bailey’s Engineering and Cheung-Mui are charged with
second-degree reckless endangerment. Jiaxi Liu, Garcia and WSC Group are charged with
fourth-degree criminal mischief. Jiaxi and Jia Rong Liu and Cheung-Mui are charged with firstdegree offering a false instrument for filing. The defendants are also variously charged with
third-degree insurance fraud; fraudulent practices, workers’ compensation law, Section 114 (3)
and Section 96; third-degree grand larceny; criminal tax fraud in the third-, fourth- and fifthdegree; and second- and third-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument.
The District Attorney said that, according to the indictment, between April and
September 2018, construction workers employed by WSC Group Inc., performed demolition,
excavation and foundation work at a construction site at 714 39th Street in Sunset Park. The
construction involved removing a one-story industrial building and replacing it with a four-story
manufacturing and community facility, including a new cellar level that would serve as an
underground garage approximately nine feet below the first-floor level.
It is alleged that, despite repeated warnings of dangerous conditions at the site from
workers and adjacent property owners, Jiaxi “Jimmy” Liu refused to stop work at the site. On
September 12, 2018, at approximately 2 p.m., a portion of a support of excavation system (SOE)
and an existing masonry wall – adjacent to residential apartment buildings – collapsed, trapping
one of the construction workers who was performing foundation work in the immediate vicinity.
That worker, Luis Almonte Sanchez, 47, an employee of WSC Group, was struck by one of the
underpinning pin sections, which weighed between 15,000 and 45,000 pounds and was buried
under the collapsing debris. First responders couldn’t recover Sanchez’s body until the following
day due to unstable conditions at the site, which were worsened by significant rain.
The District Attorney said that, according to the indictment, Jimmy Liu ran WSC Group,
the company hired to perform the excavation work and it was his responsibility to give
instructions to his foreperson and workers; His brother, Tommy Liu owned WSC Group; Wilson
Garcia was the foreperson at the site; Paul Bailey was an engineer, acting as the Special
Inspector at the site, and whose responsibility was to oversee the work and ensure that all
building and administrative codes were complied with and that the construction site was safe for
workers; Wilson Garcia served as the foreperson and “competent person,” designated to identify
hazards and take immediate action to correct the hazards on site; Cheung-Mui was licensed as a
construction superintendent by the DOB and was required to be on site to maintain a safe job
site, maintain compliance with approved construction documents and perform daily site visits;
Cindy Chai was the bookkeeper at WSC Group LLC and is only charged in connection with
financial crimes alleged in the indictment.
It is alleged, according to the indictment, that the defendants were obligated by law to
ensure that the construction site was in compliance with regulations promulgated by the DOB
and Occupational Safety and Health Administration to ensure the safety of the work site, but, in
fact, the site was not in compliance and, furthermore, the defendants failed to follow the design
plans submitted and approved by the DOB. They allegedly solicited new plans, which were not
submitted to DOB, but ultimately didn’t follow any plans, leading to hazardous conditions at the
site. Among the issues: the excavation was too deep, the underpinning system wasn’t installed
properly and safe bracing procedures were not followed.
Furthermore, it is alleged that in the days prior to September 12, 2018, Jimmy Liu and
Garcia were informed by several of their workers of a number of potentially dangerous
conditions, including that the rear wall was moving forward and that it had to be further braced
with another beam across the lower portion of the wall in order to stop the wall’s movement.
Also, it is alleged, Jimmy Liu and Garcia were notified by a resident who lived
immediately adjacent to the rear wall that her patio and garage had caved in. It is alleged that,
despite those warnings, Jimmy Liu and Garcia refused to direct the workers to install additional bracing and never halted work at the site in order to assess or remedy the conditions. Nor did
they notify DOB about the conditions.
Instead, it is alleged, they ordered workers to continue working on the underpinning at
the rear of the site and in the days immediately preceding the collapse allowed a trucking
company to continue to remove truckloads of dirt during a heavy rain storm, further destabilizing
the site and causing the fatal collapse.
Additionally, it is alleged, some of the same individuals and companies were involved in
another construction project located at 1759 Bay Ridge Parkway in 2017-2018, that was subject
to numerous safety complaints that led to a DOB inspection, which uncovered numerous
violations, and resulted in a stop work order. It is alleged that work continued at the site despite
the order.
Finally, it is alleged, that WSC defrauded the New York State Insurance Fund of nearly
$47,000 by making false statements about their employees, and that it also committed tax fraud
by failing to file taxes between 2015 and 2018 and owes more than $28,000 for 2015 and 2016.
Following the 2018 fatal construction incident at 714 39th Street, DOB inspection teams
conducted enforcement sweeps citywide of every construction site associated with the
defendants and issued additional enforcement actions for site safety conditions where
appropriate. In addition, DOB is taking additional administrative actions against any of the
defendants that have licenses, registrations, or privileges with the Department.
The case was investigated by DOI, specifically Investigative Inspector Ross Hoffman,
Chief Investigator James McElligott and Special Investigators Janaina Siguencia and Alejandra
Gomero, under the supervision of Inspector General Gregory Cho, Deputy Commissioner/Chief
of Investigations Dominick Zarrella and First Deputy Commissioner Daniel Cort, with assistance
from DOI’s squad of NYPD Detectives.
An indictment is merely an accusation and not proof of a defendant’s guilt
