Investigation Uncovers Alleged Gas-Line Scheme
January 12 2017 - 6:23PM
Dow Jones News
By Thomas MacMillan
Brooklyn landlords looking to quickly cash in on a booming
real-estate market found a way to bypass a lengthy building
inspection process: call on a "shadow utility company" set up by a
former National Grid employee to install illegal gas lines,
authorities said.
That former employee, Weldon "Al" Findlay, appeared in Brooklyn
Supreme Court Thursday morning, accused of being the head of an
alleged conspiracy to sell illegal gas connections to unscrupulous
landlords and property managers in Brooklyn and Queens.
Mr. Findlay, 47 years old, pleaded not guilty to a charge of
enterprise corruption as well as to 64 counts of falsifying
business records, 41 counts of commercial bribery, and 23 counts of
criminal tampering.
Authorities charged 36 others -- including seven former National
Grid employees and 26 landlords, property managers and contractor
-- as part of the alleged conspiracy, said Acting Brooklyn District
Attorney Eric Gonzalez and Department of Investigation Commissioner
Mark Peters.
National Grid, an electricity and gas company, supplies gas to
New Yorkers. It said the alleged misconduct was limited to a
handful of people whom the company no longer employed. It said it
was conducting "a thorough internal investigation" and working
closely with its regulator.
"This group infiltrated a public utility and threatened the
well-being of unsuspecting Brooklyn residents in an effort to line
their own pockets," said Mr. Gonzalez, the acting district
attorney.
During a six-month investigation in 2016, authorities using
surveillance and wire taps found conspiracy members installed
illegal gas meters at 33 residential buildings, mostly in Brooklyn
but also in Queens, Mr. Gonzalez said.
Prosecutors said Mr. Findlay, who was fired from National Grid
in 2010 for leave abuses, would charge landlords an average of
$1,500 for installation of illegal gas meters. He allegedly worked
with a National Grid customer-service representative named Phoebe
Bogan, who also pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption,
falsifying records, bribery and tampering on Thursday.
Mr. Findlay's lawyer, Stephen Zeitlin, said his client had no
previous arrests and was the married father of two young children
and the son of a pastor. He said Mr. Findlay owns a small carwash
business and delivers school lunches and voluntarily turned himself
in Thursday morning. "There is no harm done to anyone from what
he's alleged to have done," Mr. Zeitlin said.
Ms. Bogan's lawyer, Lance Lazzaro, said the 41-year-old has no
criminal record, is the mother of an 8-year-old boy and voluntarily
turned herself in early Thursday morning.
Ms. Bogan would open new accounts for the landlords without
proper approval and dispatch utility technicians involved in the
scheme to install meters, according to prosecutors. Landlords were
able to receive gas service while avoiding permitting and
inspection by the Department of Buildings or a licensed master
plumber.
"It was a relatively simple scheme, but it was very lucrative
for the people involved in it," Mr. Gonzalez said.
"We believe hundreds of thousands of dollars exchanged hands,"
Mr. Peters said.
Mr. Peters said authorities inspected all gas meters installed
as part of the alleged scheme and found several violations,
including the use of cheap plastic piping of the kind that was used
at the gas line that exploded in the East Village in 2015, killing
two.
Mr. Peters said the construction boom in the city has been
accompanied by "a troubling increase in corruption." The gas-meter
investigation grew out of another investigation into alleged
bribery of Department of Buildings employees staff, he said.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 12, 2017 18:08 ET (23:08 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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