Mount Vernon corporation counsel arrested in corruption scheme

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MOUNT VERNON – City of Mount Vernon Corporate Counsel Lawrence Porcari has been indicted and arrested on charges that he abused his position as a public official by engaging in a scheme that defrauded the city’s Board of Water Supply of $365,000 to pay the personal legal expenses of Mount Vernon Mayor Richard Thomas and a public relations firm.

Porcari is charged with corrupting the government and grand larceny as a crime of public corruption, defrauding the government and four counts of offering a false instrument for filing, all as felonies.

According to documents filed with Westchester County Court, Porcari allegedly misappropriated funds from the Mount Vernon Board of Water Supply to pay law firms for the personal defense of the mayor in criminal proceedings, as well as a PR firm hired at the time of Thomas’ arrest in March 2018.

Approval for the rate of payment for one of the law firms and the PR firm was sought from the city’s Board of Estimate and Contract on several dates in April and May of 2018, but was never obtained. Instead, Porcari allegedly arranged for payments from the funds from the Board of Water Supply, which consists of money paid by customers for their use of water and whose use is limited by state and local law to Board of Water Supply purposes. The scheme allegedly continued into the fall 2018 with payments from the water supply board to a second firm later retained for Thomas’ defense.

Porcari allegedly tried to cover his tracks by submitting memorandums to the water supply board for “emergency” payments to the law firms, including memorandums containing false statements.

The offices of State Attorney General Letitia James and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli investigated the alleged crimes.




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