Two oil officials sentenced in $75M scheme

Two officials of a heating-oil delivery business have been sentenced for their role in operating a $75-million scheme in which customers were given less oil than ordered, with the remainder sold on the black market.

The customers affected were mainly large institutions such as apartment complexes, hospitals, commercial buildings and government officers in the Long Island and New York City area. Their names were not released.

Eston Clare, 68, of Brooklyn, the office manager for the now defunct Brooklyn-based T & S trucking, was sentenced to a year in prison Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert in U.S. District Court in Central Islip for money laundering, officials said.

The owner of T & S, Tonino Solimine, 53, of Rumson, N.J., was sentenced Friday by Seybert to 5 years in prison for theft from interstate shipments and money laundering, officials said.

Solimine and Clare were also ordered jointly to forfeit a total of $7 million and pay $550,000 in fines, officials said. In addition, Solimine, who is an Italian citizen, was ordered to be deported to Italy after he finishes his prison sentence.

Solimine's attorney, Robert La Russo, said that his client, in effect was sentenced "twice for the same crime" -- prison, forfeiture and fines, and then separation from his family and children, who grew up in the United States.

Clare's attorney could not be immediately reached for comment. Assistant United States Attorney Burton Ryan declined to comment.

Solimine and Clare were also among a number of officials of two companies that delivered home-heating oil who were arrested by federal agents in 2007. They were accused of engaging in a scheme where meters on oil delivery trucks were rigged to allow air to be mixed with heating oil as it was pumped into customers tanks, officials said.

Federal agents found $1 million in cash in Solimine's home when they came to arrest him in 2007, prosecutor Ryan said at the time. Solimine tried to escape by running out the back door toward his moored 50-foot yacht moored, Ryan said. But Solimine's attorney scoffed at the idea that his client was trying to escape.

Executives of the second company, Mystic Tank Lines, of Astoria, are still awaiting sentencing, according to officials.