Harendra Singh pretrial hearings postponed due to 'mountainous' number of documents

The number of documents in the case of indicted Long Island restaurateur Harendra Singh is so massive that a federal judge Thursday postponed for 90 days the next pretrial hearing in the case.

U.S. District Judge Sandra Feuerstein acted after attorneys said the government had turned over 120,000 pages of documents, with more to come. Singh's attorney, Anthony La Pinta of Hauppauge, described the paperwork he will have to go through -- mainly business records seized from Singh -- as "mountainous."

Singh, 51, of Laurel Hollow, was arrested in September on charges of bribing a former Town of Oyster Bay deputy attorney with $50,000 and a lease worth $36,000 on a luxury car in order to get the town to indirectly guarantee millions in business loans. The restaurateur was also charged with failing to pay millions of dollars in taxes, as well as fraudulently collecting $950,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for damage that had not occurred at his Water's Edge Restaurant in Long Island City.

Singh has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

La Pinta and Eastern District federal prosecutors Catherine Mirabile and Raymond Tierney also said during the hearing at federal court in Central Islip they would come back to court at an unspecified date with a new agreement about a bail package for Singh.

Singh had been released on a number of bail conditions, including being allowed to work at his Bethpage office for three hours a day. La Pinta argued the time allotted was inadequate for Singh to supervise his restaurants. Prosecutors originally had unsuccessfully argued that any time was too great because they alleged the fraud had been largely plotted at the office.

But La Pinta, Mirabile and Tierney agreed they would return to court with an agreement to allow Singh to spend as much as five hours a day at his office in return for his permission for the government to inspect his ongoing business records. The agreement also would include the appointment of a government-approved financial manager who would oversee Singh's business.

By Robert E. Kessler

Robert.Kessler@newsday.com

Bob Kessler covers federal law, including law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, DEA, IRS and ATF, as well as the federal courts.