CITY CARTING OF WESTCHESTER INC. AND MANAGER PLEAD GUILTY TO FILING FALSE FINANCIAL RECORDS.
Manager faces six months in jail; former county waste and recycling contractor required to pay $5,000 fine.
WHITE PLAINS, NY – Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah announced today that City Carting of Westchester, Inc., and its manager pleaded guilty on June 6, 2023, to submitting false financial records that concealed tens of thousands of dollars in company money spent at strip clubs.
DA Rocah said: “This brazen misuse of taxpayer dollars is an abuse of public trust by a government contractor, and my Office will continue to investigate and prosecute cases of public corruption and seek accountability for this kind of criminal conduct.”
City Carting’s Manager, Christopher Oxer, 37, of Darien, Connecticut, pleaded guilty to Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree, a felony, and City Carting of Westchester, Inc., pleaded guilty to Attempted Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree, a misdemeanor. In accordance with their plea agreements, Oxer will be sentenced on August 2, 2023, to six months in jail, which will run concurrent to his one-year federal prison sentence for tax fraud charges related to his conduct, and the corporation will be required to pay a $5,000 fine, which is in addition to separate fines levied against City Carting by Westchester County, who terminated their contract.
As part of City Carting's annual $20 million contract with Westchester County to manage and process waste and recyclables, the corporation was required to file their financial records with Kroll Associates. Kroll was appointed as an independent monitor to ensure City Carting was operating in compliance with all criminal and civil laws and without influence from members or associates of organized crime. The records, received by Kroll and the Solid Waste Commission, a county regulatory agency, were the subject of the Commission’s referral to the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office.
The District Attorney’s Office investigation found that the defendants submitted false financial statements that concealed transactions Oxer made at strip clubs in New York City between 2018 and 2019 totaling $135,000 on the corporation's American Express credit card. One transaction included $40,000 that was spent in a single visit at one establishment. Those expenditures were entered into City Carting’s accounting records as business expenses for items such as tires, tolls, equipment and maintenance.
The case is before Judge Maurice Williams in Westchester County Court, and is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Celia Curtis of the Trials and Investigations Division.
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