Bellmorite charged with $26K theft

A Queens contractor who makes his home in Bellmore was arrested and charged last week with cheating his employees out of legal wages. Maurizio Randazzo, principal of Queens-based ANR Electrical Contracting, Inc. and Grand Electric, Inc., allegedly stole more than $26,000 from the New York City Department of Education, according to State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Randazzo is alleged to have falsely claimed to be a licensed electrician and obtained a public works contract to perform electrical work in New York City schools. Public works contracts are funded through taxpayer money and require contractors to submit weekly payroll reports indicating that employees are paid legally mandated rates and benefits. Randazzo’s company performed work in 11 New York City schools under the city’s Project Connect general contract with IBM — while working on the schools to which he allegedly submitted fake payroll reports. The contractor also allegedly paid his employees far bellow the legal requirement and didn’t pay some workers at all, Cuomo said.

Randazzo’s companies were paid on the falsified payroll reports. He kept the difference between the funds he was given for wages and what he actually paid his employees, making more than $26,000 in the scheme, according to Cuomo.

Randazzo was arrested in conjunction with two similar cases after a recent investigation conducted by Cuomo’s office. Geewhan Mangal of Jamaica and Joseph Casucci of Brooklyn were also arrested and charged with stealing more than $400,000 from state workers. Mangal and Casucci’s companies had contracts to provide the ironwork for the Readiness Center being built in Cortlandt Manor in Westchester. Mangal allegedly instructed his workers to cash their paychecks and return the cash to him. He then paid them a sum well bellow the legal rate, Cuomo said.

The attorney general lambasted the three men and said it was vital to keep a close eye on public contracts. “By taking action against corrupt and unscrupulous contractors who get paid on the public dime, we protect workers and uphold the integrity of government contracts,” he said.

Randazzo and his corporations were each charged with 40 counts of falsifying business records and one count of grand larceny. Mangal and Casucci were each charged with 23 counts of falsifying business records, 23 counts of offering a false instrument for filing and one count of grand larceny.

At press time, calls to Randazzo’s attorney were not returned.

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