Harendra Singh continues to avoid jail, foreclosure

                                                                                 

Harendra Singh (credit: Victor Alcorn, NY Post)

Former Oyster Bay concessionaire Harendra Singh -- key witness in the federal corruption trials against former Republican County Executive Ed Mangano, his wife Linda and former Republican Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto -- still has not been sentenced and still is apparently living in his Syosset mansion, despite pleading guilty to eight felonies in 2016. 

In comparison, Mangano last month began serving a 12-year sentence in federal prison after being convicted of accepting bribes and kickbacks from Singh in return for pressuring Oyster Bay Town officials to guarantee $20 million in private loans to Singh, a restaurateur and longtime family friend.

Singh immediately defaulted on the loans; the alleged guarantees were subsequently found in three different courts to be fraudulent and illegal.

Linda Mangano is on home confinement after serving five months of a 15-month federal sentence for essentially lying to the FBI about a low-show $100,000-a-year job she held with a Singh restaurant for more than four years.

Venditto was acquitted of federal corruption charges involving Singh in May, 2018. Venditto died of lung cancer not quite two years later -- after he was nearly bankrupted from fighting the accusations.

But Singh has yet to be sentenced even though he  secretly pleaded guilty in 2016 to bribing Mangano, Venditto and other Oyster Bay officials in return for cooperating with federal prosecutors.

His latest sentencing was scheduled for March 1, but Federal Judge Joan Azrack adjourned the hearing until May 10.  Don't know why.

Azrack presided over both Mangano trials. (The jury could not reach a verdict against the Mangano's in 2018 when Venditto was acquitted. But another jury convicted the couple in 2019. The Mangano's have maintained their innocence and still have outstanding appeals to overturn their convictions.)

Singh also is apparently living in his Syosset mansion despite not paying his mortgage since 2014.

Singh house under construction in 2008 (from Nassau Assessor's office)

Six years ago a court-ordered referees calculated Singh owed nearly $3 million in principle, interest and penalties to lender Citi Bank, which issued the mortgage on Singh's 2-acre estate. The Nassau County assessor's office say the five-bedroom, four-bath house is worth more than $2.1 million.

A state appellate court in 2021 upheld a foreclosure that had been ordered in Jan. 2018. But Singh has used various legal maneuvers to ward off eviction, including the filing of a covid-related hardship claim -- a new legal step that become available after then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an order to stop banks from foreclosing on deadbeat mortgage holders during the coronavirus.

Last month, court records show Singh filed for bankruptcy, putting a stop to any foreclosure action --at least for now.

Singh was the main witness against the Mangano's, saying he lavished them with gifts, free meals and trips.

Although Singh acknowledged during trial that he had forged Venditto's signature on at least one loan document, Azrack found him to be a "credible" witness.

                                                                          

(Note: Tom Adams, who originally ordered the 2018 foreclosure, is no longer a judge, but county attorney for Nassau County.)