By Stephen Stirling
DOI Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said Alan Risi, Chief Executive Officer of Georal International Ltd. in Whitestone and Joanne Ruscillo, director of sales for Integrated Security Corp., located at the same address, conspired to rig the bidding in an auction of surplus city property.Risi was convicted of two counts of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, a felony, while Ruscillo was convicted of one count of second-degree offering a false instrument for filing, a misdemeanor. Last Thursday's conviction was the second for Risi involving the doors. He pleaded guilty to grand larceny and paid a $50,000 fine in 2004 for submitting phony invoices to the city while performing maintenance on the entrance systems.Hearn said the 19 surplus security entrance systems were manufactured and sold to the city Department of Corrections and the New York Police Department by Georal International in 2000 and 2001 for nearly $1 million. She said in the subsequent surplus auction in 2006, Risi bid $10,000 for the doors before Ruscillo outbid him at $35,000. A DOI investigation found that the checks used to make both bids were signed by Risi and he was the sole signatory of both checking accounts used to make them. “This case demonstrates that individuals who seek to steal from the taxpayers will be caught and prosecuted,” Hearn said. “That lesson should be especially clear to Mr. Risi, who has learned that the criminal justice system is not a revolving door.”Risi was scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 25 in Manhattan Criminal Court. Ruscillo is scheduled to be sentenced in the same court on March 20. Reach reporter Stephen Stirling by e-mail at Sstirling@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
