Edward Mangano defense attorney attacks Harendra Singh

If there was one thing that former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano’s attorney spent last week trying to establish for a federal jury, it was that star witness Harendra Singh has lied so often and about so many things that it may be impossible to know when he’s told the truth.

Singh, a politically connected restaurateur, spent five days earlier this month on the witness stand in Central Islip testifying for federal prosecutors in the trial of Mangano and his wife, Linda, and former Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto, before U.S. District Court Judge Joan Azrack in Central Islip.

Singh described numerous bribes and frauds, explaining how he traded on friendships and relationships to get public contracts for himself.

But Kevin Keating, Mangano’s Garden City attorney, has shown that Singh lied frequently.

During questioning by Keating, Singh said he lied to friends. He defrauded his parents, he conceded. He lied to banks and other lenders, he said. He lied to the Internal Revenue Service. He even told different versions of events to federal authorities after he started cooperating with them.

As Keating’s questions began to accumulate during the past week, Singh grew increasingly testy.

Several times, when Keating asked if Singh had done something illegal, Singh replied, “You can say that.”

Keating finally replied at one point, “Can you say that?”

“If you’re saying that, I can say that,” Singh said.

Keating tried in his cross-examination of Singh to reinforce what he told jurors in his opening statement in the trial on March 14.

“He’s incapable of telling the truth,” Keating said then. “Now he’s the witness you’ll have to believe beyond a reasonable doubt to convict Edward Mangano.”

Edward Mangano, 56, of Bethpage; Linda Mangano, 54, also of Bethpage; and Venditto, 68, of North Massapequa, are on trial together.

Edward Mangano and Venditto face charges including conspiracy to commit federal program bribery and honest services wire fraud. Mangano also is charged with extortion, and Venditto also is charged with securities fraud. Linda Mangano’s charges include obstruction of justice and false statements.

All have pleaded not guilty.

Linda Mangano’s attorney, John Carman of Garden City, is expected to begin questioning Singh on Monday.

At the end of the day Thursday, Keating played two surreptitiously made recordings of Singh talking to trusted friends in 2015, before he was arrested. In both conversations, he denied getting any illegal benefit from Mangano as a result of gifts he’d given or a no-show job he gave to Linda Mangano. He testified that it wasn’t until April 2016, after he’d been in jail for four months and was facing decades in prison, that he started describing his gifts as bribes.

In a June 23, 2015, telephone conversation with retired Nassau police Det. Roger Paganuzzi, Singh said federal investigators wanted to talk to him, and he was worried.

Singh said authorities likely wanted information about politicians.

“I don’t have any story about any politician,” he said. “I wish I did, I mean, I could make up, but it will be all lies, that won’t be good either, you know.”

Singh said authorities “think that everybody totally crooked and corrupt, you know, that’s the only reason that anybody had friends . . . What is wrong is being nice and generous to everybody so . . . ”

Earlier, Keating had played a March 26, 2015, recording of Singh talking to Oyster Bay Deputy Town Attorney Frederick Mei, who was wearing a body wire while cooperating with federal authorities. Singh has testified about bribing Mei lavishly.

Mei then asked Singh if he’d heard anything about the Manganos getting subpoenas, and their being upset about it.

“Ed was certainly happy to spend the money that Linda made,” Mei said. “So I don’t know why he would be upset . . . People are going to assume that if you gave him money like that he did something for you . . . Was there anything he did for you?”

“Nothing,” Singh said. “Nothing.”

Later, Mei asked if the authorities were “going to get Ed on anything.”

Singh replied, “Nothing. No.”

He described paying Linda Mangano without requiring her to work, but “you know, I didn’t get anything. I lost money.”

After the recording played, Keating asked Singh about his relationship with Mei.

“We had done some things which were not legal,” he said.

Singh said he trusted Mei with his secrets. Still, that didn’t mean he would talk about all his problems with Mei.

“I don’t think I discuss my tax business with Fred Mei,” Singh said. “He didn’t know what kind of problem I had, what kind of taxes I paid, what taxes I didn’t pay.”

He said he told Mei the Manganos had done nothing wrong because he was trying to protect them and himself.

Earlier this week, Keating highlighted differences between what Singh told federal authorities in 2016 when he started cooperating with them, and how he testified this month.

Around the time he hired Linda Mangano in 2010, her husband’s first year in office, Singh said he registered SGT Consulting and Construction with Nassau County’s procurement system. Keating suggested that if hiring Linda Mangano was supposed to get him favors, it didn’t work very well.

“How many contracts did SGT get in 2010?” Keating asked.

“None,” Singh said.

Keating repeated the question for every year until Singh’s arrest and got the same answer each time.

“It was your expectation in hiring Linda Mangano that you would get contracts for SGT, right?” Keating asked.

“No,” Singh said.

Again, Keating confronted Singh with his statements to federal agents during his May 2016 initial cooperation talks, when he said he gave Linda Mangano the job in the hope of getting contracts for SGT.

“You didn’t say that on direct examination” by prosecutors, Keating said to Singh.

“It’s hard to remember everything,” he replied.