Officials: Brightwaters company pleads guilty to fraud in billing fire district
Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini Credit: Howard Schnapp
A Brightwaters company was ordered to return $82,605 to the Wading River Fire District Tuesday after pleading guilty to fraudulently billing the district and failing to pay subcontractors for an underground fuel storage project, officials said.
The company, Environmental Compliance Associates Corp., pleaded guilty to first-degree offering a false instrument filing and was sentenced to a conditional discharge, according to Suffolk District Attorney Timothy Sini and the state Department of Labor. The company was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine, Sini and state officials said in a news release. Company owner Nicholas Guercio, 41, of Brightwaters, pleaded guilty to a violation and was sentenced to a conditional dishcharge, the release said.
The company won a $325,000 bid in 2018 to install two underground petroleum tanks as part of the fire department’s fuel storage and fire suppression system.
Prosecutors said the company submitted multiple forged bills they claimed were signed by subcontractors who were never actually paid. The company also billed the fire department $15,000 for a performance bond that was never purchased and submitted sworn affidavits claiming all vendors had been paid when they were still owed money, authorities said.
The company was paid more than $82,000 for a performance bond and payments to three subcontractors and a parts supplier.
"This company was stealing money from the fire district — and by extension the taxpayers with the left hand and shortchanging workers with the right," Sini said the release. "Whenever an unscrupulous business like this is awarded the bid on a public works project, that is a job that could have gone to a hardworking, law-abiding company. ."
The company’s New York City-based attorney David Oddo could not be reached for comment.
John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.
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