Ex-New Hyde Park company indicted

Richard Tedesco

A company formerly based in New Hyde Park, its owner, and five other defendants were indicted on Friday by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office for faking concrete test results on construction projects, including Yankee Stadium, the Jacob Javits Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the Air Control Tower at LaGuardia Airport, the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the Lincoln Tunnel and the Second Avenue Subway.

American Standard Testing and Consulting Laboratories, its principals and staff members were also charged with manipulating government programs to obtain jobs for which they were otherwise ineligible.

“Construction projects must comply with building codes for one simple, but very important, reason: to ensure that our city’s buildings are safe,” said District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. “Because of this fraud, government agencies and private companies paid thousands of dollars for test results that were no more than worthless pieces of paper.”

Company owneer Alan Fortich, 44, and the other five other defendants are charged with enterprise corruption, scheme to defraud, offering a false instrument for filing, and falsifying business records.

American Standard Testing’s Web site lists the company’s address as 1300 Jericho Turnpike. The indictment filed by the Manhattan DA listed the company as currently located in Whitestone. When the phone number on the Web site was called, a message played that the number was disconnected. Fortich did not respond to an e-mail seeking a response to the allegations against him and the company.

The allegations by the Manhattan DA were part of an investigation initiated against Testwell Laboratories that resulted in indictments in October 2008 against that company and its executives on enterprise corruption charges for similar fraudulent activities.

Testwell and its top executives, Reddy Kancharia and Vincent Barone were convicted on those charges last year and prosecutors sought $110 million from the company.

American Standard Testing replaced Testwell on many of the projects for which American Standard Testing is accused of producing bogus test results.

According to documents filed in court, American Standard Testing submitted thousands of fraudulent test reports, routinely skipping vital safety tests and falsifying reports to create the impression that tests had been properly performed.

None of nearly 3,000 test reports in American Standard Testing’s computer database contained legitimate test results, prosecutors allege.

During the same period, the company is also charged with lying about its credentials in order to obtain licenses from the New York City Department of Buildings.

American Standard Testing’s phones at its New Hyde Park offices were apparently disconnected.

Fortich and American Standard Testing engineers Michael Rabkin, 53, Shamim Akond, 43, Richard Kasparian, 71, of Manhasset, and Bruce Pumo, 58, allegedly faked results on projects in which they did not actually test the four proportions of concrete reflected in these reports.

Fortich allegedly created the false mix design reports and the engineers, in turn, filed them with professional engineers, who relied on the test results in assessing their projects.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority Inspector General Barry Kluger commended the Manhattan DA’s office on the indictments.

“We are continuing to work with the MTA Office of Construction Oversight to ensure the public safety and the sustainability of these construction projects,” Kluger said.

New York City Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said, “This city has no place for companies who choose to cut corners and jeopardize construction safety.”

Press reports in 2009 cited cracks in the concrete ramps at Yankee Stadium. Reports said mob-associated companies had poured the concrete.

A spokesperson for the Yankees at the time said the cracks were “cosmetic” and did not indicate any safety issues because the integrity of the ramps had not been compromised.

New York City Department of Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri said the indictment coveys a “clear message” to concrete-testing businesses “that there are serious consequences for cutting corners on the job site.”

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