Former Oyster Bay Town Attorney Leonard Genova disbarred for loan guarantee role

                                                                            

Leonard Genova (from Linked in)


Former Oyster Bay Town Attorney Leonard Genova was disbarred by the New York State Appellate Division today because of the role he played in enabling $20 million in fraudulent loan guarantees from the Republican-controlled town for longtime concessionaire Harendra Singh.

A five-member panel unanimously agreed that Genova, as town attorney and deputy supervisor,  violated the rules of professional conduct by accepting bribes from Singh to sign off on the illegal deals that promised lenders that the town would make good on the multi-million dollar loans distributed to Singh if the concessionaire defaulted.

"We find that the respondent committed serious misconduct by engaging in long-term corruptive practices as a public official for personal and professional benefit," the court wrote.

Genova's disbarment comes one day after the Town of Oyster Bay approved a settlement with the Harris Beach law firm that requires the firm to pay the town $1.25 million for its role in the loan guarantees, which were found by three different courts to be illegal and unenforceable. 

Harris Beach, claiming to be representing the town, wrote opinion letters to the lenders, saying the town had agreed to back the loans

But Harris Beach actually was representing Singh and was never  hired by the town board. Instead, a deputy town attorney, who admitted accepting bribes from Singh, told the firm it had been hired and waived any conflict of interest in representing both sides of the deal. 

The law firm claimed it had been duped by Genova and former Republican County Executive Ed Mangano.

Mangano was convicted by a federal jury trial of accepting kickbacks from Singh in return for pressuring Oyster Bay to guarantee the loans. Mangano's wife was convicted on related charges involving a $100,000 a year "low-show" job she received from Singh.

The late Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto was acquitted of all wrongdoing.

Genova, the longtime Massapequa Park Republican leader, was granted immunity in return for his testimony against Mangano. He acknowledged that he signed the loan deals without reading them.

Singh pleaded guilty in 2016 to eight felony counts for bribing Mangano and Oyster Bay Town officials but has never been sentenced.

A longtime friend of the Mangano's, Singh served as a main prosecution witness against them.

As of February, records indicated Singh was still living in his five-bedroom, four bath mansion in Syosset, fighting foreclosure despite non-payment of his mortgage since 2014.

Federal judge Joan Azrack found that Singh, who acknowledged during the trial that he forged Venditto's signature on at least one loan document, gave testimony that was "credible and supported by independent evidence."

The Mangano's maintain their innocence and are appealing their conviction.

Azrack is to decide this month whether to allow the Manganos to stay out of prison during their appeal.

 











 


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