Records on ex-Oyster Bay official Frederick Ippolito's outside income released

Former Oyster Bay planning and development commissioner Frederick Ippolito’s financial disclosure forms from 2009 through 2013 show that he received income from Carlo Lizza & Sons Paving Inc. and the Lizza Family Trust in each of those years.

That income was at the heart of the criminal case brought against him in U.S. District Court in Central Islip, but Oyster Bay officials had withheld the forms when requested under the state’s public records access law.

A state Supreme Court judge in July ordered Oyster Bay to turn over the forms in response to a lawsuit filed by Newsday, but that order was stayed pending the town’s appeal. Town officials released them after the sentencing last week of Ippolito to 27 months in federal prison and nearly $550,000 in restitution after he pleaded guilty to a single count of federal income tax evasion relating to income received from Carlo Lizza & Sons in 2008.

Ippolito began work for Oyster Bay in January 2009, but the town ethics code required him to fill out a financial disclosure form for the previous year.

The forms, filed with the town’s ethics board for 2009 through 2013, list as sources of income “commissions earned from previous employer Carlo Lizza & Sons Paving Inc.” and the Lizza Family Trust.

Carlo Lizza & Sons is a town contractor that has done millions of dollars of work for the town. Ippolito had been chief executive of Carlo Lizza & Sons in 2008. His disclosure form for 2008 listed private employment but did not disclose his position with Carlo Lizza & Sons nor did it list any income from the Lizzas.

The income amounts were redacted on the form. According to a court filing by Ippolito’s attorney, Brian Griffin of Garden City, Ippolito received more than $1.4 million from two Lizza family members from 2009 through 2013, and $412,000 from Carlo Lizza & Sons in 2008.

At the sentencing, U.S. District Judge Leonard Wexler said Ippolito’s receiving income from a town contractor while employed by Oyster Bay had been a conflict of interest.