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Crime & Safety

Bellmore Man Arrested for Kickback Scheme

Lawrence Pesce accused of defrauding Touro College.

A 45-year-old Bellmore man who was acting as the construction manager for Touro College has been arrested by the U.S. Attorney's office for allegedly defrauding the college out of more than $2 million since May 2008 in a kickback scheme, according to U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

As the construction manager for a project for Touro College at 230 West 125th St. in Manhattan, the current site of Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, Lawrence Pesce allegedly reached out to a developer in the region and indicated he could ensure the developer's company would get the project if the developer agreed to pay Pesce kickbacks.

The complaint alleges that the night before the bids for the project were due to Touro, Pesce met with the developer who planned on putting forth a bid of $9.1 million. Pesce allegedly told the developer to bid $10.9 million and kick back the difference to him, the complaint stated.

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"Lawrence Pesce allegedly breached his position of trust at Touro College and received a $2 million windfall from his dishonest sale of the college's construction project," said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

According to the U.S. Attorney's complaint, over the course of the two-year project, Pesce also allegedly directed the developer to submit additional, "falsely-inflated" invoices or change orders that over-billed Touro by hundreds of thousands of dollars with the intention of receiving kickbacks. The complaint alleges that Pesce received from the developer checks totaling $568,002 as well as $350,000 to fund the purchase of property in Wantagh, approximately $190,000 in cash as well as the transfer of ownership of four units of a housing development in Wappinger Falls, New York valued at more than $1 million.

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"As the victim in this alleged crime, Touro was outraged to learn about this matter and will cooperate fully with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office in their investigations," said Touro President and CEO Alan Kadish, M.D. "Touro has processes in place to prevent fraud, including fraud in competitive bidding. However in this case it appears that a determined attempt was made to subvert the processes."

According to Touro, Pesce was suspended without pay pending resolution of the federal matter.

He was released on $250,000 bail and is due back in court on July 22. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted. 

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