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Northern Westchester Trash Hauler Must Pay $2M For Fraud Scheme

A 61-year-old contractor has been sentenced to prison time and ordered to pay millions in restitution for his role in defrauding and stealing millions from Westchester County clients that hired his waste hauling business based out of Briarcliff Manor.

Stephen DiSalvo was charged on 40 counts of fraud and theft.

Stephen DiSalvo was charged on 40 counts of fraud and theft.

Photo Credit: Westchester County District Attorney's Office

Westchester County District Attorney Anthony Scarpino, Jr. announced on Thursday that Florida native Stephen DiSalvo has been sentenced to a term of three to six years in prison for the fraud scheme involving ATNM Corporation. 

He additionally forfeited $1 million and ordered to pay more than $2 million with his co-defendants, Christopher C. and Christopher E. Leggio.

According to Scarpino, between 2013 and 2015, DiSalvo and his business partners “systematically altered several hundred dump tickets, so as to fraudulently reflect a higher tonnage of solid waste being transported.” 

Those false tickets were attached to ATNM invoices and submitted to a hauling broker for payment. Leggio would fax the dump tickets to DiSalvo, who altered them, and faxed them back so they could fraudulently charge customers.

As a result of the scam, it is estimated that the broker, while relying on the fraudulent tickets, paid more than $1 million to ATNM. 

The Westchester County Solid Waste Commission learned of the scheme in early 2015, prompting an investigation, which determined that the three contractors had been defrauding and stealing from ATNM customers since January 2010 and that DiSalvo had participated in falsifying, forging and altering more than 3,000 dump tickets issued from at least six different weigh stations in Westchester County.

In total, it is estimated that DiSalvo is complicit in the larceny of more than $2 million from 20 victims, one of which - The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company - was forced to file for bankruptcy before the charges were filed against ATNM.

DiSalvo had been released on $50,000 bail before his sentencing on Thursday.

“The case against ATNM has been an important collaborative effort among the District Attorney’s Organized Crime and Criminal Enterprise Bureau, Westchester County Department of Public Safety, and the Westchester County Solid Waste Commission," Scarpino said in a statement. "These agencies worked together to shut down a criminal enterprise costing Westchester County businesses millions of dollars and, now, we are pleased to say all of that money has been returned.”

“This teamwork among the Solid Waste Commission, the County Police and the District Attorney’s Office is County government at its finest. There were several Westchester businesses which were victims of this fraud and which now have been made whole again," Tricia O'Callaghan, the acting Executive Director of the organization added. "The Solid Waste Commission and its partners are here to ensure that only individuals of good character, honesty and integrity operate in the solid waste and recyclables hauling industries in Westchester County. We look forward to working with this team again.”

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