we are having a party ..

at. the nassau otb singh restaurant

Nassau OTB is happy to announce the opening of a new restaurant - Poco Loco - at the Carle Place OTB branch located at 180 Glen Cove Road in the front corner of the Voice Road Plaza. Opening day of the Mexican eatery is scheduled for May 4, just in time for Cinco de Mayo! Poco Loco is the sister location of the popular Poco Loco Mexican Restaurant in Roslyn, where every day is Cinco de Mayo. Poco Loco is known for many years of excellence as a casual Mexican restaurant offering traditional Mexican fare at reasonable prices. Look for some new smokehouse items on the menu at the Carle Place location! Poco Loco's hours of operation in Carle Place will be Mon.-Thurs. 11:30am to 10pm, Friday-Saturday from 11:30am to 11pm, and on Sundays from 11:30am to 9pm.

Filler: Secret plea’s surprise about Mangano, Venditto 

With both Mangano and Venditto scheduled for trial in March, the more we learn the more we wonder.

Nassau OTB is happy to announce the opening of a new restaurant - Poco Loco - at the Carle Place OTB branch located at 180 Glen Cove Road in the front corner of the Voice Road Plaza. Opening day of the Mexican eatery is scheduled for May 4, just in time for Cinco de Mayo! Poco Loco is the sister location of the popular Poco Loco Mexican Restaurant in Roslyn, where every day is Cinco de Mayo. Poco Loco is known for many years of excellence as a casual Mexican restaurant offering traditional Mexican fare at reasonable prices. Look for some new smokehouse items on the menu at the Carle Place location! Poco Loco's hours of operation in Carle Place will be Mon.-Thurs. 11:30am to 10pm, Friday-Saturday from 11:30am to 11pm, and on Sundays from 11:30am to 9pm.

In a transcript of his plea before U.S. District Judge Sandra Feuerstein in Central Islip, Singh admitted bribing Mangano and Venditto between January 2010 and February 2015. He described funneling cash, gifts, meals and favors to them in return for contracts and favors from the governments they ran.

“My intention in providing these things of value to Mangano, Venditto and other officials was to influence their behavior and obtain benefits for myself, my restaurants and my companies,” he said, according to the transcript. 

Among his bribes were:

• $50,000 cash to an Oyster Bay official to help Singh pay loans guaranteed by the town.
• “I also purchased a series of gifts for County Executive Edward Mangano, including a massage chair, an office chair,” Singh said. “I paid for wood flooring to be installed in the master bedroom of the Manganos’ home. I paid for a watch for one of Mangano’s sons that was worth approximately $7,000. And I paid for trips for Ed Mangano and the Mangano family. I also provided a no-show job to Linda Mangano from 2010 through 2014. During this time I paid Linda Mangano approximately $450,000. During the time I was paying Linda Mangano, she was not required to show up for work and no work product was expected from her. I hired Linda at the request of Ed Mangano and my purpose in hiring her was to influence Ed. Throughout the time of this conspiracy, I also allowed the Mangano family to eat and drink for free at my restaurants.”
• For Venditto, there were free meals and significantly discounted rates for events at Singh’s facilities, and free limo service.

The city official who Singh pleaded to bribing is identified in the proceedings only as Official #2. The mayor is not identified by name in the superseding information Singh pleaded to, or in the official transcript of Singh’s plea obtained by Newsday.

But his interaction with Singh coincides with the details in the restaurateur’s plea. “Between in or around 2010 and in and around September 2015, I gave and raised tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to an elected New York City official in exchange for efforts by that official . . . and other City officials to obtain action from a New York City agency that would benefit myself and restaurants I owned.”

At the time, Singh was attempting to get the city to renew the lease for Water’s Edge, the Long Island City restaurant he owns, identified in the court papers only as Singh Entity #2.

Mirabile said in the transcript that the bribes and kickbacks got Singh “official action on an as-needed, as opportunities arise basis.”

Those actions included loan guarantees by the Town of Oyster Bay and agreements with the town and the county. In the city, Mirabile said the campaign contributions Singh raised and paid were in return for official action to favor Water’s Edge.

In the transcript, Singh agreed to cooperate in all the investigations of elected officials, and agreed to pay unspecified restitution. He also waived his right to appeal.

The plea deal did not include a promised sentence, but Mirabile said in court that the maximum sentences for the eight charges range from 3 years for the false tax return count to 20 years each for the three wire fraud counts. Each charge also carries a maximum fine of $250,000.