Former East Haven Zoning Official Sentenced

EAST HAVEN, CT - Fired Zoning Enforcement Officer Frank Biancur Jr, 41, of West Haven, will spend the next 30 days in a halfway house for seeking and receiving illegal payments while employed as a Zoning Enforcement Officer for the Town of East Haven.

Biancur will also then spend six months in home confinement with electronic monitoring and perform 200 hours of community service. In pleading guilty, Biancur admitted that he sought and received payments from at least five individuals in exchange for official acts he rendered as the Zoning Enforcement Officer.

In May 2015, a resident of East Haven contacted the East Haven Police Department and the FBI with information that he/she had been extorted by Biancursince approximately October 2012 and, as a result, had made cash payments to Biancur, according to court documents.

On May 19, 2015, Biancur called the victim and informed the victim that Biancur had to inspect an addition to the victim’s residence.

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Although Biancur stated that he was “fighting” for the victim, he also required a payment of $200 or he would make the victim tear down the addition, documents state. On May 21, 2015, the victim engaged in a consensually-recorded meeting with Biancur at Biancur’s office in East Haven Town Hall, documents state.

During the meeting, the victim gave Biancur $200 in cash, which Biancur put in his pocket.Biancur also has admitted that he sought and received $500 cash payments from two additional East Haven residents in order to resolve zoning violations, federal authorities said in a news release.

Biancur was ordered to pay $6,265 in restitution. Biancur was arrested on May 27, 2015. On December 1, 2015, he pleaded guilty to one count of theft of honest services mail fraud.

Prior to his employment by the Town of East Haven, Biancur was employed by the City of West Haven and the City of Bridgeport.