Long Islander Pleads Guilty To Fire Alarm Fraud Scheme: Feds

BROOKLYN, NY — Two men who ran fire alarm maintenance company, including an East Meadow man, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to wire fraud conspiracy in connection to a decade-long scheme to defraud New York City, federal prosecutors said.

“Millions of dollars went up in smoke as Walter Stanzione and William Neogra fraudulently inflated the cost of their company’s products to finance personal luxurious purchases,” stated Acting FBI Assistant Director in Charge Leslie Backschies. “For more than ten years, the defendants charged various New York City clients exaggerated pricing for fire alarm systems and obfuscated this misconduct through doctored invoices."

As set forth in various public court filings and in today’s proceedings, Stanzione, 66, of East Meadow, and Neogra, 65, of Delaware, had control over Fire Alarm Electrical Corp., a company that held numerous contracts with New York City agencies to repair and maintain fire alarm systems, prosecutors said.

For more than a decade, the defendants overbilled those agencies by submitting fraudulent invoices with dramatically inflated prices, U.S. Attorney John Durham said.

The defendants created numerous shell companies that were secretly owned by Stanzione, prosecutors said. After purchasing supplies from legitimate retailers, Stanzione and Neogra would re-invoice the parts through the shell companies for roughly three to five times the real purchase price, ultimately passing along those “costs” to the City, Durham said.

They also took advantage of pre-existing shell companies that were being used in other ongoing frauds, he said.

“The defendants abused this position of trust so that they could scheme and steal, defrauding New York City out of millions of dollars. The guilty pleas announced today make clear that reprehensible conduct like this will be uncovered and prosecuted, " Durham said.

When sentenced, Stanzione and Neogra each face up to 20 years in prison.