$4.85 Mil Pay Back for Bribes

An unprecedented $4.85 million in restitution was agreed to by four individuals and five corporations in a guilty plea to defraud southeast Queens School District 29 of millions of dollars.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown and New York City Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo, joined Joel Klein and Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City School District Richard Condon in announcing that the parties had pleaded guilty to fraud and related charges and admitted that they engaged in a massive scheme to rig bids, pay bribes, receive kickbacks and fix lucrative Board of Education computer contracts worth millions of dollars over a five-year period, between 1995-2000.
"The defendants fraudulent scheme victimized the children of Southeast Queens who lost critically-needed classroom resources as a result of the defendants greed and corruption," said Queens DA Brown at a press conference October 18.
The defendants pleaded guilty in Queens Supreme Court late October 18 before Justice John Latella Jr. who indicated that he will sentence them to conditional discharges and also require that they pay a total of $4.85 million in restitution and forfeiture, including $1.5 million immediately.
The district attorney had identified the defendants as: Celestine Miller of Hempstead, the former Superintendent of Community School District 29 in Southeast Queens; Thomas Kontogiannis of Old Brookville, a prominent businessman and owner of Emerald Estates, Olympic Corporation and Group Kappa, three of the corporations that pleaded guilty; Ray Shain of Williston Park, an attorney and principal in R.J. Computer Consultants, Ltd., a company that pleaded guilty; Kinson Tso of Dix Hills, the owner of Business Innovative Technology, a corporation that pleaded guilty to fraudulent computer contracts; and William Harris of Hemptead, Millers husband.
The sentencing has been set for December 4.