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Singh details perks at Mangano’s corruption trial
The one-time restaurateur finished his testimony for prosecutors in the federal corruption case of the Manganos and former Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto, but faced the start of questioning by their defense teams.
Harendra Singh walks out of federal court in Central Islip with his attorneys on Aug. 3, 2016. Photo Credit: James Carbone
This story was reported by Nicole Fuller, Emily Ngo, Bridget Murphy, Robert E. Kessler and Andrew Smith. It was written by Ngo.
Harendra Singh’s venues hosted weddings for the families of the Nassau County GOP chairman, two sitting Oyster Bay town board members and a former town parks commissioner for tens of thousands of dollars less than he usually billed, he testified Monday.
Singh also recounted how former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and his wife, Linda, were “consumed with panic” in preparing to explain her no-show job to the FBI.
The one-time restaurateur finished his testimony for prosecutors in the federal corruption case of the Manganos and former Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto in Central Islip, but faced the start of questioning by their defense teams.
Edward Mangano’s attorney, Kevin Keating of Garden City, sought to show jurors that Singh was motivated to cooperate with the government because he wanted to be freed from the Brooklyn jail where he had been held without bail.
Singh, 59, of Laurel Hollow, pleaded guilty in October 2016 to bribing Mangano and Venditto with perks ranging from free meals at his restaurants to Linda Mangano’s $100,000-a-year, no-show job in exchange for lucrative county contracts and millions of dollars in town loan guarantees.
Singh, arrested in September 2015, insisted Monday that he wanted to cooperate with prosecutors from the start but was advised against it by his former attorney.
“I realized I had been living this life of lies and deception, so I had to come forward,” he said.
But Singh in his fifth day on the stand said he distributed discounts and freebies far and wide not only to the Nassau County and Oyster Bay officials he believed would boost his businesses, but their aides, friends and extended family members.
The daughter of Nassau County Republican Party chairman Joseph Mondello celebrated her wedding about a decade ago at the Woodlands, the Woodbury catering hall where Singh was a concessionaire, Singh said.
The festivities ordinarily would cost $65,000, but the bill was negotiated steadily downward — at the urging of Venditto and his aides — to $35,000, Singh said.
Singh testified that he gave the discount to benefit Venditto because the “supervisor’s political future” depended on “Mondello’s blessing.”
President Donald Trump recently nominated Mondello to the post of U.S. ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago.
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