A Rockville Centre business owner and his Queens-based iron and erection construction company were sentenced on Tuesday, Dec. 2, for insurance fraud and underpaying $600,000 in policy premiums, according to Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly.
Mahendranauth Khargie, 36, and his business, GC Stud, pleaded guilty on Tuesday, Oct. 21, to insurance fraud, while the company also pleaded guilty to effect of failure to secure compensation under state law.
Khargie and GC Stud were sentenced to a conditional discharge and ordered to pay a full restitution payment of $625,000 to the state Insurance Fund. If Khargie fails to pay the restitution for the lost premiums in full, he faces a prison sentence of two to six years.
According to the charges, Donnelly said annual audits by state insurance fund premium fraud investigators revealed Khargie substantially underreported the total payroll amount during three policy periods between April 2019 and March 2022, resulting in premium fraud.
As a state insurance fund workers’ compensation policyholder, Khargie and his company are required to provide financial records concerning income and employee payroll to the agency every year that the policyholder renews its coverage, according to the DA.
Records revealed that large payments to Khargie were made by three different steel and iron fabrication companies during the time of the investigation, Donnelly said. Khargie hid the money, deposited the funds in a JPMorganChase account, and did not provide that account to the agency’s premium auditors, she said.
Over the course of the scheme, Khargie underreported his payroll to the state insurance fund by more than $3.5 million, resulting in underpayments of the company’s workers’ compensation policy premiums, the DA said.
Khargie was arrested on Sept. 4, 2025, in Mineola by members of the Nassau County District Attorney’s Detective Squad.
“The restitution paid should serve as a deterrent to any business attempting to cheat the workers’ compensation system,” said NYSIF Executive Director and CEO Gaurav Vasisht.
