Mangano trial star witness Harendra Singh hoping for 'reasonable' sentence for 'monumental assistance,' attorney says

Harendra Singh, the star witness in the federal corruption case against former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and his wife, Linda, is hoping for a 'reasonable sentence' for his "monumental help'  when he is sentenced in the coming months, his attorney told Newsday.

"This case, now lasting seven years, has been an emotionally brutal time for Mr. Singh,” Anthony La Pinta of Hauppauge, Singh's attorney, said this week.

Federal prosecutors said Edward Mangano, a two-term county executive and now-disbarred attorney who first served as a Nassau legislator, monetized his power from the moment he took the helm of Nassau’s government in 2010 by accepting bribes from Singh. Mangano was sentenced on Thursday to serve 12 years in prison following his 2019 corruption conviction; his wife, Linda, was also sentenced to serve 15 months in prison for her role in the case.

The jury in 2019 found Mangano used his influence to sway Town of Oyster Bay officials into indirectly backing what amounted to $20 million in loans for the restaurateur, a town concessionaire. The U.S. attorney’s office presented evidence Singh gave bribes to the county executive that included a $454,000 “no-show” job for Linda Mangano, free meals and vacations, two luxury chairs, hardwood flooring for the master bedroom in the couple’s Bethpage home and a $7,300 wristwatch for one of their sons.

Singh became the prosecution’s star witness after pleading guilty to charges that included bribery, conspiracy and tax evasion. He testified for six days at the 2019 Mangano trial about how he lavished bribes on Mangano after the former county executive ascended to the top of Nassau’s government.

“I bribed Ed Mangano and he did favors for me,” Singh told the jury. “Whatever was needed, I took care of it.”

LaPinta told Newsday recently the former restaurateur was troubled by the fact that his longtime friends, Edward and Linda Mangano, would probably be facing prison time after their convictions.

Eastern District prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Joan Azrack to sentence Edward Mangano to 17 1/2 years, and they asked the judge to sentence Linda Mangano -- also convicted in 2019 -- to 2 1/2 years in federal prison for lying to authorities about her $454,000 “no-show” job. 

The FBI raided Singh’s office in Bethpage on Aug. 21, 2015, and he was arrested on a 13-count federal indictment a few weeks later. The indictment accused Singh of paying a bribe to a former Oyster Bay deputy town attorney to get an “indirect guarantee”  of loans for food concessions he ran at town beaches and a golf course. He was also accused of defrauding the IRS by not reporting millions of dollars in wages paid to restaurant employees. 

Singh was also charged with collecting almost $1 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for falsely claiming his restaurant in Long Island City was damaged by Superstorm Sandy. 

Singh's guilty plea was part of an agreement with federal prosecutors that required him to cooperate fully and testify truthfully in the case against the Manganos – friends long before Mangano became county executive in 2010. 

Singh has been living in limbo ever since he pleaded guilty to eight charges of the 13 charges in his indictment, including conspiracy to commit federal program bribery, federal program bribery and wire fraud, for his role in the corruption scheme, his attorney said.

“Mr. Singh ... hopes that his monumental assistance will result in a reasonable sentence by the court,” La Pinta said. “No one is happy about the fate of the Manganos. It is a sad conclusion to a once-beloved friendship."