Former Deputy Town Attorney in Oyster Bay, Frederick Mei, who provided substantial evidence against ex-Nassau County Executive, Edward Mangano, for taking kickbacks in return for town warranted indirect loan guaranties, has recently been discharged from his incarceration. Mei, now aged 65, has been given what is referred to as a ‘compassionate release’, as stated in a court order released this Wednesday. The qualifying conditions for a compassionate release under the norms of Department of Justice incorporate a terminal or incurable ailment, chronic or severe medical conditions, or a minimum age of 65. He was undergoing a sentence of two years within a federal correctional facility.
Michelle Anderson, the attorney representing Mei, ratified his client’s discharge from the facility situated in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania attributing it to a ‘medical condition’, although did not wish to discuss specifics but added a comment for assurance, asserting ‘his condition is stable’. The instructions from the presiding judge stated that the initial six months of his supervised release year should be spent in home isolation, with a permissible exception for attending ‘necessary medical meetings’.
Surprisingly, there was no objection from the prosecution regarding this move, as revealed by the court order. A refusal to comment was pronounced by a spokesperson for the Eastern District of New York. As per a compilation from the United States Sentencing Commission, appeals for a compassionate release are not always given the green signal. The recorded rate of approval rests at a mere 39.1% in the Second Circuit, encompassing the Eastern District of New York, for the fiscal year of 2023 spanning from October 2022 through September 2023.
The year 2015 saw Mei accepting his guilt over a count of honest services fraud and subsequently resigning from a lucrative town appointment that paid $117,288 annually. According to documentation presented by the prosecutors, Mei, during his tenure as a deputy town attorney, was subject to some questionable transactions. Between the years 2010 and 2012, Harendra Singh, a local restaurateur and town concessionaire, allegedly handed over cash and gifts amounting to a total of $70,000 to Mei.
The prosecutors claimed that this was done to assure that the town of Oyster Bay would step in to guarantee Singh’s loans. Transactions of questionable nature included Singh’s payment for Mei’s BMW lease amounting to $36,000 and several trips, one of them to South Korea.
Mei was also a witness in the initial trial of two corruption cases involving not only Edward Mangano, his spouse, Linda Mangano, but also the Town Supervisor of Oyster Bay, John Venditto. The first of these trials resulted in John Venditto being acquitted and a result of the jury being undecided in the case against the Mangano couple. A subsequent retrial led to their conviction.
While the FBI was conducting their investigation into Oyster Bay and Nassau County corruption, they were aided by Mei, who agreed to covertly record conversations for them. After admitting to receiving bribes from Singh in exchange for facilitating access to town-supported loan guaranties for Singh, who had political ties, Mei was handed a sentence of two years in prison and a probationary period of one year. His sentence was announced in July 2023.
Mangano faced his sentencing a bit earlier in the same year, being handed a 12 year sentence after a jury found him guilty in 2019 for numerous charges. These included conspiracy to commit federal program bribery, factual federal program bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, and conspiracy to obstruct justice. The jury’s verdict was that Mangano had abused his position as county executive to sway officials of the Town of Oyster Bay into indirectly supporting a massive loan amounting to $20 million for Singh’s business development in town.
Singh, who was regarded as a long-standing acquaintance of Mangano, offered him bribes in exchange for this backing. These incentives included a well-paying ‘no-show’ position for Linda Mangano that was worth $454,000, luxury items such as chairs and a $7,300 watch for one of the Mangano sons, as well as free meals and trips. All of these were determined by the jury.
The former county executive, Mangano, who is now 62 years old, is presently incarcerated in Ayer, Massachusetts and will gain his freedom on the eve of Christmas in 2031, this according to the federal inmate tracker. Linda Mangano completed approximately five months of her 15-month federal prison sentence in Connecticut. She was convicted on charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice, factual obstruction of justice, and for lying to the FBI on two separate occasions.
Lastly, Singh received a sentence of four years in prison. The Bureau of Prisons has ordered him to begin his sentence by the 22nd of November.