A corrections officer at New York City’s Rikers Island prison has pleaded guilty to receiving more than $200,000 in workers’ compensation benefits to which he was not entitled, prosecutors reported.
According to Jay Clayton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jovanny Concepcion pled guilty on June 1 to making false statements to obtain benefits.
“As he has now admitted, Jovanny Concepcion fraudulently received hundreds of thousands of dol
lars from New York City taxpayers by falsely claiming injuries following incidents where force was used against an incarcerated person,” said Clayton.
The New York State Workers’ Compensation Board administers the state’s no-fault workers’ compensation system including for employees of the New Y
ork City Department of Correction (DOC). According to the board, for years (2019 to 2013) while Concepcion was employed by the DOC as a correction officer at Rikers Isl
and, he falsely claimed that he was injured while on duty during incidents with incarcerated individuals requiring the use of force.
The indictment says he would also make repeated false statement to medical professionals regarding his alleged injuries when, in fact, he was not experiencing the symptoms he claimed.
Prosecutors cited evidence from surveillance footage, items seized from his cellphone, and other public information to show Concepcion lied about his injuries and symptoms.
In total, Concepcion received at least $232,427 in benefits for which he did ot qualify.
Concepcion, of New York, pled guilty to one count of making false statements related to health care matters, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Concepcion is scheduled to be sentenced on September 10.
The lawsuit was filed against Hajoca Corp., a major U.S. plumbing supplies distributor, by Adan Rendon Hernandez, 34, and Magno Alberto Valdez Sanc
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hez, 39, who suffered major injuries when the wall fell on them in early 2021, according to court documents and news reports. Marcelino Rendon Hernandez, 37, was killed in the incident, and his estate also joined the suit.
The injured plaintiffs in the case were not employees of Hajoca, but worked for Robert Crawford Masonry, court records show. The men were working on the wal
l in the parking lot for Hajoca’s showroom in Hendersonville when the structure collapsed. The lawsuit argued that the third-party plumbing company and its leadership we
re negligent in aspects of the operation: The wall was not properly braced and had not been tested for the loads bearing upon it, safety citations show.
