Ahern
WHITE PLAINS – An Armonk man was arraigned Monday on charges of grand larceny and rewarding official misconduct, both as felonies, in connection with a phony bus scam. William Ahern, 60, owned A Plus Transportation in Yonkers.
The indictment allegedes that working together with co-defendant Anna Sollozzo, the transportation supervisor for the Yonkers Board of Education, they stole some $280,000 from the City of Yonkers for bus services that were never provided for the Nepperhan Community Center.
The two created a phantom bus route by invoicing the board of ed for bus pickups at the community center, when in fact, no buses were ever dispatched. Ahern then submitted false invoices for the services that were never provided and Sollozzo would knowingly approve the documents for payment, even though the services were never provided.
During the same period, Ahern was secretly depositing money into Sollozzo’s personal bank account totaling $107,250. Sollozzo also failed to pay $282,398 in New York State income tax.
A Plus Transportation had contracted for bus services with the City of Yonkers totaling about $2.8 million for that time period of September 24, 2012 to February 7, 2014.
The fraud came to light as the Yonkers inspector general was investigating an unrelated.
Bail was set for Ahern at $25,000. He faces from three to 15 years in state prison if convicted.
Sollozzo, 54, of Yonkers, was sentenced on June 1 to two to six years in state prison on felony charges of grand larceny and criminal tax fraud.
