Seaford man sentenced for stealing $6M from Con Edison, federal officials say

A Seaford man who worked as a manager for Con Edison was sentenced to seven years in prison for using his position to steal more than $6 million from the utility over at least a 10-year period, federal officials said Tuesday.

At his Friday sentencing, John Farchione, 66, was also ordered to pay $7,223,641.46  in restitution and undergo three years' supervised release, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District, in Manhattan. He had pleaded guilty in August to honest services fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy to commit honest services and mail fraud, and aggravated identity theft.

Farchione, who had been a customer operations manager, carried out the fraud with the help of a Queens contractor whose business was to aggregate Con Ed customers' cash payments and pass them on to the utility, authorities said. Between at least 2005 and 2016, the two kept the cash and submitted fraudulent checks to the utilty, officials said.

As a Con Ed employee, Farchione was able to conceal the fraud by manipulating Con Ed’s computer and accounting systems, prosecutors said.

“John Farchione exploited his position to steal millions of dollars from his employer, a public utility company relied upon by millions of New Yorkers," U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said in a news release. "His conduct was corrosive to the integrity of the utility, and today’s sentence sends an important message to any other person in a position of financial trust that fraud and abuse of those positions will lead to severe consequences.”

Farchione's attorney could not be immediately reached Tuesday night.

Farchione resigned from Con Ed in December 2016 while the company was still investigating the matter, a utility spokesman  has said. 

His accomplice, Louis Bendel, pleaded guilty in January and is expected to be sentenced in May.