Local Schools Fall Prey To Multimillion-Dollar Heating Oil Scam
Dyker Heights’ William McKinley IS 259, PS 201 The Bay View School in Bay Ridge, and a Gravesend apartment building are among scores of victims cheated by oil companies in a city-wide scam to short customers on their heating oil deliveries, the Manhattan District Attorney revealed Tuesday.
Authorities indicted nine companies and 44 individuals connected to a nine-year scheme that defrauded heating oil customers at New York hospitals, churches, police precincts, fire houses, residential buildings and homeless shelters. According to investigators, the scammers employed sophisticated methods to trick customers into thinking they were getting their money’s worth. The surplus oil was then sold at reduced prices on the black market, the DA said.
“No illicit business or black market can be allowed to operate while honest New Yorkers are working hard to keep their homes warm during colder months,” said District Attorney Cyrus Vance. “The victims of these alleged schemes include all those who managed, worked, or lived in the affected buildings, as well as the City itself—and when schools, hospitals, and police precincts were shorted—it was residents and taxpayers who paid the price and suffered the consequences.”
The Brooklyn-based company Enterprise Transportation, Inc was responsible for shorting deliveries at residential and municipal buildings, according to the DA’s office. The company was charged with fraud, grand larceny, falsifying business records, and corruption.
According to the DA’s office, the companies used a range of methods to conceal the actual amount of heating oil delivered to customers and evade regulatory controls. In some cases, the companies diverted heating oil through a hidden valve that lead back into the delivery truck. They would also use a magnet to manipulate the meter’s air gauge to allow air to flow to the customer instead of oil.
Some of the company dispatchers received money to direct truck drivers to locations that were considered to be easy targets, according to investigators.
“These wide-reaching schemes had real financial implications for the City and its taxpayers, and we must focus our attention and resources on plans to stop them in the future,” said Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark G. Peters.
The other heating oil companies charged in the case are F&S Distribution, Inc., G&D Petroleum Transportation, Inc., G&D Heating Oil Inc., Casanova Fuel Oil, Express Petroleum, Inc., 4th Avenue Transport, Inc., All-Boro Transportation, Inc., and Century Star Fuel Corp.
The Manhattan DA’s Office said it has filed seven civil lawsuits against the indicted defendants in order to recover the money stolen from the victims.
The residential building impacted by the scam is located at 2401 63rd Street, near McDonald Avenue.
