STAMFORD – Fatima Brito has a hairdressing license in New York and, after moving to Meriden, was anxious to get one in Connecticut.
Her friend in Meriden, Isabella Espinal, dreamed of securing a hairdressing license and leaving behind the stress and long hours of her job as a building manager.
They knew that, to get their licenses, they had to pass a test, the women said. But they were unsure how to proceed.
Brito said she learned that because she was licensed in New York, all she had to do to get a Connecticut license was fill out an application and send it to the state Department of Public Health with a $100 fee. She did that, Brito said, but never heard back from the state.
Espinal said the pressures of her job made it difficult to pursue her hairdresser dream.
“I took the test twice and didn’t pass,” she said.
Then an acquaintance, a barber who owns a shop in their area, told the women he had a friend who helped him prepare for his test and obtain his license.
The acquaintance said he would introduce them to his friend, Michael Valentine, owner of a barber shop and school of cosmetology in Stamford. The acquaintance offered to go with them to a meeting with Valentine, who they knew charged several thousand dollars, and they accepted, the women said.
The acquaintance asked Valentine the cost of providing training to prepare for the hairdressing test, Brito said. Valentine’s initial price was $5,000, she said, but her acquaintance negotiated it down to $4,000.
They met Valentine at a Starbuck’s in New Haven, Brito said. It was June 2023.
‘I should have known’
“I paid him the $4,000,” Brito said. “As far as I knew, I was going to get training so I could take the Connecticut exam. I was hoping to make a good living.”
Espinal said she found herself drawn in.
“I was working 24-7, dealing with tenants’ complaints. I wanted to do something more fun. I wanted to open my own salon, work for myself. I thought, ‘Maybe if I get someone to prepare me, I will pass the test.’ That was the deal with Valentine — he said I will make sure you pass,” Espinal said. “I should have known better.”
Brito provided copies of text and email exchanges with Valentine. They show Brito repeatedly asking Valentine for a test date.
Valentine responded with several explanations: information is on the way; there are always delays with the state; the state didn’t have her address; she had to be patient.
“Relax, it’s going to happen … people have to be careful when helping you,” a message from Valentine reads.
Several months went by. At one point Brito wrote, “What I want is for you to fix it. It’s not that complicated. I’ll give you this week and if you don’t fix it by Monday, I want my money back.”
Valentine responded: “I respect you as a child of God & I will never let things get that bad between us … we are on the same team.”
A ‘C+’ in ‘Color’
Espinal said she was trying to get answers, too.
“He sent us fake appointments for taking the test,” Espinal said. “Then he gave us a diploma that we later found out was fake.”
The diploma was actually a hairdresser-cosmetology-barber school affidavit of hours of course study completed. In Connecticut the requirement is 1,500 hours.
The affidavits, one for Brito and one for Espinal, were written on State of Connecticut Department of Public Health letterhead. The affidavits say the women attended Valentine’s Vanity Studio & School of Cosmetology in downtown Stamford.
The documents are signed, dated, and duly sworn by Valentine, who certifies “that the coursework completed at this school is acceptable for purposes of licensure in Connecticut.” The affidavits are notarized by a notary public.
At the bottom of each affidavit, subjects and grades are handwritten. Espinal’s affidavit, for example, states that she earned a B in Theory, a C in Chemical, a B in Sanitation, and a C+ in Color.
There’s a problem with that, the women said.
“I never went for any class. I never went for any training,” Brito said.
Espinal said she received no training and took no classes.
“I paid him and he lied to me for two years,” Brito said. “I didn’t want to do anything illegal. I just wanted training so I could get my license.”
Espinal said she and her friend are likely not alone.
“He probably has scammed a lot of other people like us,” Espinal said.
Deputy speaker steps in
The women have been trying to get their money back, $4,000 apiece. But it appears that the State of Connecticut provides few avenues for that.
State Rep. Minnie Gonzalez of Hartford, deputy speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives, heard about the matter from her legislative aide, who lives in Meriden and knows Brito.
Gonzalez said she has some knowledge of the hairdressing and barber industry in Connecticut from working on related legislation during her nearly three decades in the state House.
“I thought, ‘How are these women getting affidavits and grades when they didn’t go to training? Why is this guy Valentine using the state form? Something’s wrong,’” Gonzalez said. “I asked Fatima and Isabella to send me all the documents they had.”
Brito sent Gonzalez paperwork showing she’d applied for a Connecticut hairdressing license as the holder of a New York license, and that she’d paid the $100 fee to the Connecticut Department of Public Health. So Gonzalez started there.
“The health department said they had no information on Fatima. I showed them the proof that she had paid them the $100. I said, ‘What is going on in your department?’ I told them I was going to keep checking,” Gonzalez said. “A few days later they found Fatima’s information. After that they sent her a license. I went to meet the commissioner of the health department and told her I want this guy Valentine investigated. The commissioner said you have to go to the Office of Higher Education because they authorize hairdressing schools.”
So Gonzalez went to the state Office of Higher Education.
“I called that commissioner. I explained what was going on. I said I want an investigation,” Gonzalez said. “I said I want to get to the bottom of it because we don’t know how many people may be getting scammed.”
About a month later she got an email from an Office of Higher Education investigator saying Valentine had agreed to reimburse Brito and Espinal $2,000 each, and that the investigation was closed, Gonzalez said.
“I was very upset,” she said. “Who decided it’s OK for these women to lose half of their money, and to close an investigation into somebody who may be using the state in a scam?”
A half-price deal
In a June 23, 2025 letter to Gonzalez, Sean Seepersad, division director of academic affairs for the state Office of Higher Education, said their investigation established that Brito and Espinal each paid Valentine a cash deposit of at least $2,000.
Valentine “has committed in writing to refund that amount to both students within 90 days of May 23, 2025,” Seepersad wrote.
That set the deadline at Aug. 21. But neither woman received $2,000 from Valentine by that date, Gonzalez said.
Noele Kidney, spokesperson for the state Office of Higher Education, said they settled on $2,000 reimbursements because Brito and Espinal “didn’t provide any receipts showing they paid the $4,000.”
The office is a compliance agency that regulates schools, Kidney said. Career schools apply to the agency to offer instruction, and the agency inspects them to determine whether they should be authorized.
“If someone has a complaint about a school … we would investigate to see if it violated one of the compliance standards, and try to reach a resolution,” Kidney said.
In the case of Vanity Studio & School of Cosmetology, the office emailed Brito and Espinal “about what we found in conversations with the school. Then, separately, we’re kind of looking at the school to see what’s going on,” Kidney said.
Espinal said no one told her or Brito that the state had reached a compromise with Valentine.
The Department of Public Health issues hairdressing licenses to the individuals who apply for them, not to schools, spokesperson Brittany Schaefer said. The department received the Brito and Espinal affidavits and “has them on record, but the record does not indicate the source,” Schaefer said.
The health department did not investigate the complaints against Valentine, Schaefer said, and has not received other complaints about his school.
‘I think it’s statewide’
The health department’s “Practitioner Licensing and Investigation Section does not have a fraud unit,” Schaefer said. “In this case, the Office of Higher Education reviewed this complaint as it has oversight of post-secondary education programs.”
So there it sits.
Valentine did not respond to questions sent to his email address or left on his business phone.
Gonzalez said that if the state will not pursue the allegations, perhaps a court will. An attorney from Middletown, Amado Vargas, took the case pro bono, Gonzalez said.
In a letter dated Aug. 8, Vargas demanded that Valentine pay the full $8,000 total to Brito and Espinal by Sept. 2.
“If payment is not made, I will assume that you do not intend to pay,” Vargas wrote. “We will then look at all the legal options, including filing complaints with the police and the State Department of Public Health as you scammed Ms. Brito and Ms. Espinal into believing they would have certified hairdressing licenses.”
As of Sept. 3, Valentine had not reimbursed either of the women, Gonzalez said.
Vargas told CT Examiner he thinks Valentine is “advertising himself in poorer communities,” targeting people “who may not be sophisticated” in the workings of government. “I think it’s statewide,” Vargas said.
Be wary of promises
Espinal said she last heard from Valentine on Aug. 14, when he replied to her text to say he was aware of the letter from Vargas and “will follow up on it.”
Brito said that in her last communication with Valentine, she texted, “That’s it; no more talk. I want my money.” Valentine wrote back that he had to speak to his lawyer, Brito said. She has not heard from him since, she said.
People come from their home countries with a license in their trade and “are desperate to get a Connecticut license to work here,” Gonzalez said. “That’s when somebody can take advantage.”
Hairdressers and barbers may be, knowingly or unknowingly, paying for fake licenses, or working with no license at all, given the apparent lack of investigation by the public health department, Gonzalez said.
“How many people in Connecticut are working as a barber or hairdresser and never got a license? Who knows?” Gonzalez said.
“I want people to understand what’s going on and I want the state to take this seriously.”
Espinal offered a word of warning.
“Be careful with people who promise you something,” Espinal said. “Don’t trust people who say, ‘God bless you’ and ‘I’m a child of God’ and all that stuff.”