County Cartage Contractor Covered Up $135K In Strip Club 'Expenses'

YONKERS, NY — An executive at a Yonkers company that was fired from a massive county contract entered a guilty plea to felony charges related to the financial investigation that upended the firm.

Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah announced on Friday that City Carting of Westchester, Inc., located in Yonkers, and its manager pleaded guilty to submitting false financial records that concealed tens of thousands of dollars in company money spent at strip clubs.

"This brazen misuse of taxpayer dollars is an abuse of public trust by a government contractor, and my Office will continue to investigate and prosecute cases of public corruption and seek accountability for this kind of criminal conduct," Rocah said.

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City Carting’s manager, 37-year-old Christopher Oxer, of Darien, Connecticut, pleaded guilty to felony offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree, while City Carting of Westchester, Inc., pleaded guilty to misdemeanor offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree.

Oxer will be sentenced on August 2, to six months in jail, which will run concurrent to his one-year federal prison sentence for tax fraud charges related to his conduct.

City Carting will have to pay a $5,000 fine, which is in addition to separate fines levied against the corporation by Westchester County, who terminated their contract.

As part of its annual $20 million contract with Westchester County to manage and process waste and recyclables, City Carting was required to file their financial records with Kroll Associates, an independent monitor, to ensure the company was operating in compliance with all criminal and civil laws and without influence from members or associates of organized crime. The records, received by Kroll and the Solid Waste Commission, a Westchester County regulatory agency, resulted in the commission’s referral to the Westchester County DA’s Office.

The DA Office's investigation revealed that the defendants submitted false financial statements concealing transactions Oxer made at NYC strip clubs between 2018 and 2019, totaling $135,000 on City Carting's American Express card. One transaction included $40,000 that was spent in a single visit at one strip club. Those expenditures were listed in City Carting’s accounting records as business expenses for items such as tires, tolls, equipment and maintenance.

The case is before Judge Maurice Williams in Westchester County Court, and is being prosecuted by Assistant DA Celia Curtis of the Trials and Investigations Division.