Joseph Bonney, Senior Editor | May 10, 2012 12:24PM EDT
A truck dealer and scrapper were indicted on charges of filing false insurance documents for participation in the Port of New York and New Jersey’s clean-trucks program and bribing an undercover investigator.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office announced the indictments of Anisora Arnaut, manager of Five Stars Truck Sales in Elizabeth, N.J., and Lisa Devino, comptroller and manager of A. Devino, a Newark scrapping company.
The indictment alleges they submitted false insurance certificates for participation in the port authority’s clean-trucks program, which subsidizes the replacement of old trucks with newer, less-polluting models. Arnaut and Devino also were accused of bribing an undercover investigator posing as a port authority official checking on the documents.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. commended the port authority “for its careful screening and investigation of applicants to the truck replacement program” and said he hopes the case “sends a message to others that this sort of dishonesty will be uncovered and vigorously prosecuted.”
Fred Potter, Teamsters vice president and port division director, has said he supports cleaner trucks but that owner-operators won’t be able to buy and run them without subsidy. After the indictments, he issued a statement saying the case illustrates problems with port trucking’s current business model.
“It’s all the more reason for the port authority to take the same rigor they applied to this singular investigation to develop a real and comprehensive clean-trucks program to upend this industry’s widespread fraud, illegal employment scams, and tax cheating that led to all the dirty trucks and third-world wages in the first place,” Potter said.
Contact Joseph Bonney at jbonney@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JosephBonney.