Mangano to pay $20,000 fine, forfeit $546,000 and luxury watch, but still faces millions in restitution

                                                                            

Ed Mangano

                                                            

A federal judge yesterday ordered former Republican Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano to pay more than a half million dollars in fines and forfeitures after sentencing him last week to serve 12 years in prison for accepting bribes from then-Oyster Bay concessionaire Harendra Singh.

And U.S. District Judge Joan Azrack is likely to order Mangano on July 13 to pay millions more in restitution in connection with his 2019 conviction by a federal jury of pressuring the town to back $20 million in private loans to Singh.

Mangano's wife, sentenced to 15 months in prison on related charges, will be assessed $400, according to a separate Azrack order.

But the court shouldn't count the money yet.

After going through two federal trials and appeals, the Manganos' finances are said to be in shambles. Even their Bethpage home has multiple mortgages on it.

"Ed Mangano has lost virtually everything," Mangano's lawyer Kevin Keating said in court papers asking for leniency before sentencing. "His political career and boundless future has been lost. His law license has been taken away, virtually all of his assets are gone, and his good name vanquished — all because 12 years ago a phony friend of 25 years asked him to show up at a meeting over which he had no ability to impact." 

Singh was the star witness against Mangano. He testified that he bribed Mangano by giving his wife $454,000 over more than four years in a no-show job at one of his restaurants, hardwood flooring, a $7,000 luxury watch and more -- though the couple said they considered them gifts from a family friend.

Calling Singh a liar, Mangano argued he had not pressured the town and the late supervisor John Venditto to guarantee loans to Singh beyond an initial $1.5 million deal -- and that he had no power to compel the longtime Republican supervisor to do anything.

People familiar with Nassau politics agree that Mangano did not have that kind of clout in April 2010 when the loan meeting took place -- four months after Mangano took office.

Singh subsequently defaulted on the loans.  

But Azrack said Singh appeared credible and dismissed as irrelevant the court decisions that found  the loan guarantees unenforceable. Though she acknowledged that Mangano didn't know about the subsequent $20 million in loan guarantees, she wrote that he should have foreseen them as part of his bribery scheme.

Azrack on Tuesday issued a judgment that closely followed prosecutor recommendations.

She ordered Mangano to pay a $500 "assessment" and a $20,000 fine, plus restitution in  an amount to be determined on July 13.

Federal prosecutors have recommended Mangano  pay restitution "in the full amount of the victim's losses," including over $11 million to the insurance company that repaid the defaulted loans and $4 million in town legal fees, Newsday has reported.

Under Azrack's order, Mangano will have to pay $25 every three months while incarcerated and then "10% of gross monthly income thereafter" to pay off the fine and restitution.

Azrack also ordered that Mangano forfeit $526,606.95 -- the amount of bribes he received, including Linda's salary from Singh - as well as the "Black and Silver Panerai Brand Luminor 44mm watch."