Harendra Singh continues to win delays in sentencing on 8 felony guilty pleas

                                                                              

It's been seven years since restaurateur and Oyster Bay concessionaire Harendra Singh secretly pleaded guilty to eight felonies for bribing former Nassau Republican County Executive Ed Mangano, the late Oyster Bay Town Republican supervisor John Venditto and other Oyster Bay Town officials.

Yet he is still free, apparently still living in his Syosset mansion despite not paying his mortgage since 2014, while Mangano serves 12 years in federal prison after being found guilty in March 2019 of accepting gifts and other kickbacks from Singh in return for pressuring town officials to guarantee $20 million in private loans to Singh.

Venditto was acquitted in federal court of participating in the loan guarantee scheme but died of lung cancer in 2020, a broken man who was nearly bankrupted fighting the charges.

Mangano's wife Linda is on home confinement after serving five months in prison following her conviction for lying about a low-show $100,000 year job she held with a Singh restaurant for more than four years.

The Mangano's have maintained their innocence and are appealing their convictions.

Singh, a longtime family friend,  was the star witness against the Mangano's.

They contend that Singh, who admitted forging Venditto's name on papers for one of the loan guarantees, lied on the stand. In addition, three courts have found the loan guarantees to be fraudulent and illegal.

But federal judge Joan Azrack, who presided over the Mangano trials, termed Singh "a credible" witness.

Singh's last sentencing hearing was scheduled for May 10, after an earlier hearing was delayed. But Azrack again pushed off  sentencing until July 11 after Singh's lawyer complained he had not had enough time to review a pre-sentence investigation report.

Asrack order from court docket

Seven years seems like enough time to complete and issue a pre-sentence report, but apparently the feds follow a different timeline than the rest of us.

Meanwhile, foreclosure remains halted on Singh's $2 million Syosset mansion after he filed for bankruptcy in February. Singh stopped paying his mortgage in 2014. A Supreme Court judge in 2018 granted a motion for foreclosure after court referees said he owed Citi Bank nearly $3 million in principle, interest and penalties at that point.

 But Singh appealed the Supreme Court decision and has used various legal tactics to forestall foreclosure ever since.