Syosset Businessman Charged With Fraud Scheme, Bribing Town of Oyster Bay Official

A Syosset businessman was arrested Wednesday for his involvement in a multi-million dollar fraud scheme in which he bribed Town of Oyster Bay employees, underreported his businesses’ earnings and illegally obtained federal disaster relief funds, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

Harendra Singh, 56, was indicted in federal court in Central Islip on 13 counts of bribery, fraud and obstruction.

Singh, known as “H. Singh,” used bribes and kickbacks to steal millions of dollars from the Town of Oyster Bay and bribed a Town official, prosecutors say.

He did so by evading taxes on millions of dollars of sales and wages and by lying to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Internal Revenue Service to get Hurricane Sandy disaster relief funds, which he was not entitled to, said Kelly T. Currie, acting United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

The Town of Oyster Bay Loan Scheme

Singh, who owned and operated restaurants and food concessions in Nassau County, allegedly paid bribes and kickbacks to a Town of Oyster Bay employee to get the town’s guarantee of two loans, worth about $20 million, that two of his businesses received from a private corporate financing company, according to the release

With the town’s guarantee, if Singh defaulted on the loans, the town would be responsible for repaying the financing company.

Singh bribed the town employee with approximately $50,000 in checks, paid for the employee and his relative to travel to Asia a few weeks after the second loan closed and made monthly payments for the lease of a BMW automobile, the release says.

Although the employee is not mentioned in the press release, Newsday reported that Singh paid for former Deputy Town Attorney Frederick Mei and Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, his wife Linda and their two sons to go on trips.

The Tax Fraud Schemes

Singh fraudulently underreported the amount of money he earned and the wages he paid his workers, the press release says. He allegedly failed to report about $10 million in gross receipts for tax years 2009 and 2012 and concealed approximately $7,091,331 of wages paid to workers by underreporting payroll hours, paying them “off the books” and hiding the existence of certain workers from 2010 to 2014, which fraudulently deprived the federal government of payroll taxes.

The FEMA Fraud Scheme

Singh is being charged with a FEMA fraud scheme in which he illegally obtained about $950,000 in federal disaster relief funds by preparing and filing false and fraudulent documents and invoices with FEMA from Oct. 2012 to Jan. 2015, according to the release.

He allegedly claimed his Long Island City restaurant, “The Water’s Edge,” was damaged by Hurricane Sandy more than it actually was. He also gave FEMA fraudulent receipts from vendors that inflated the value of the restaurant’s building, according to the release

Obstruction of Justice

Singh was charged with evidence tampering and obstruction of justice after FBI special agents with a warrant searched his offices in Aug. 2014. He told agents he did’nt have a key to a locked safe, which he said contained legal guns. Authorities said the safe actually contained $175,000 in cash that was diverted from one of his beach concession stands in the Town of Oyster Bay.

He allegedly removed the cash and told two individuals to take a portion of the cash home for “safekeeping.” The two were then told to return the money to Singh’s wife a few days later, according to the release.

Arrest

Singh was arrested Wednesday and charged with five counts of honest services wire fraud, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, federal program bribery, disaster relief fraud, two counts of conspiring to defraud the United States, impeding the IRS, tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice.

“The charges alleged in today’s indictment describe an outpouring of greed,” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Diego Rodriguez in a statement.

If convicted, the government will forfeit Singh’s properties. He faces a maximum prison sentence of:

• 20 years for wire fraud
• 10 years for the federal program bribery charge
• 30 years for the disaster relief fraud charge
• 5 years for the the charge of conspiring to defraud the United States in connection with his scheme to under-report gross receipts and payroll taxes
• 3 years for the charge of obstructing and impeding the due administration of the Internal Revenue Laws