Report: Restaurateur gave free meals to Mangano

The Nassau County restaurateur accused of bribing officials has also allegedly given free meals to County Executive Ed Mangano, according to reports. News 12 has previously reported that Harendra Singh,

News 12 Staff

Sep 15, 2015, 2:00 AM

Updated 3,315 days ago

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The Nassau County restaurateur accused of bribing officials has also allegedly given free meals to County Executive Ed Mangano, according to reports.
News 12 has previously reported that Harendra Singh, 56, is facing 13 federal charges and was arrested last week. 
Singh owns H.R. Singletons, a restaurant in Mangano's hometown of Bethpage. According to Newsday, several current and former restaurant employees allege that Mangano ate at the restaurant for free in return for favors.
A Mangano spokesman says that the executive paid for all of the meals he ate at the restaurant.
A former Suffolk official, attorney Paul Sabatino, says that it could be a problem for Mangano if the allegations are true. 
Ethics rules forbid Nassau County employees from accepting gifts totaling $75 or more within a 12-month period.
"When you're a public official, you don't take gifts from anybody because you never know when you're going to do business with that person," Sabatino says.
A spokesman for Mangano says that Singh had only one contract with the county -- an emergency purchase order to provide food after Superstorm Sandy. Additionally, he says Singh's firm was hired by the county's Office of Emergency Management, and that the county executive had no personal involvement in the deal. 
Prosecutors say that between 2011 and 2013, Singh bribed a Town of Oyster Bay official to secure a pair of government guaranteed loans totaling $20 million.