for immediate release contact - Queens County District Attorney

DISTRICT ATTORNEY
QUEENS COUNTY
125-01 QUEENS BOULEVARD
KEW GARDENS, NEW YORK 11415-1568
718-286-6000
Release # 112-2010
www.queensda.org
RICHARD A. BROWN
DISTRICT ATTORNEY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 2010
CONTACT: KEVIN RYAN
HELEN PETERSON
MERIS CAMPBELL
718-286-6315
EMPLOYEE CHARGED WITH STEALING
QUEENS-BASED SEWER COMPANY FROM WIDOW
Grieving Widow Was In Israel Burying Husband and Son Who Died In Sewer Accident
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that a Flushing man employed
at a husband-and-wife-owned sewer business based in the South Ozone Park section of Queens has
been charged with fraudulently taking over ownership of the company last year while the wife was
in Israel burying her 49-year-old husband and 23-year-old son who had died in a work-related
accident.
District Attorney Brown said, “A once trusted employee, the defendant is accused of taking
advantage of a woman – engulfed in the traumatic and unexpected grief of having lost both a
husband and son in one afternoon – to steal the business she helped to found and which was her
husband’s legacy to her and their surviving children. The defendant’s alleged theft is a shameful
betrayal of the faith that his employers placed in him.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Ygal Lalush, 42, of 144-07 69 th Avenue in
Flushing. Lalush is presently awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on charges of secondand
third-degree grand larceny, second-, third- and fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen
property, second-degree forgery, first-degree falsifying business records, second-degree offering a
false instrument for filing and first-degree scheme to defraud. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years
in prison.
District Attorney Brown said that Shlomo Dahan, the owner of S. Dahan Piping and Heating
Corporation, located at 126-14 Van Wyck Expressway in South Ozone Park, Queens, and his son,
Harel Dahan, were among three men killed on June 30, 2009, at Royal Waste Service (part of Regal
Recycling Company), located at 172-08 Douglas Avenue in Jamaica, while cleaning out a waste
transfer station sewer. The third man, Rene Francisco Rivas, was an employee of Royal Waste
Service.
The District Attorney said that, according to the criminal charges, when Sara Dahan went to
Israel to bury her husband and son, she asked Lalush to run the company in her absence and gave
him several blank signed checks in order to manage the business expenses. It is alleged that Lalush
falsely completed the checks and negotiated them for his benefit, which resulted in Sara Dahan to
sustain a monetary loss of $30,000. It is additionally alleged that Lalush changed all of the locks at
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the business and stole the four company trucks by forging Sara Dahan’s signature and transferring
title to the vehicles from Dahan to himself, using his home address on the registrations. It is further
alleged that Lalush changed the company’s business address from South Ozone Park to his home
address in order to misdirect and misappropriate Dahan’s mail and to be able to conduct the business
from his home – including receiving accounts payable from vendors. Finally, it is alleged that Lalush
set up bank accounts in the name of S. Dahan Heating but did business as City Sewer Specialists,
again listing his home address as the location of the company.
A court-authorized search warrant was executed at the defendant’s residence yesterday and
police allegedly recovered the original passports of Shlomo and Harel Dahan, their death certificates,
titles to all four company vehicles, as well as business records that belonged to S. Dahan Piping.
The investigation was conducted by Detective Thomas Rice, of the NYPD’s 106 th Precinct’s
Detective Squad, under the supervision of Lieutenant Stephen Borcheres. Also assisting in the
investigation were investigators with the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles and Postal
Inspector Joseph Wiseneski, under the supervision of Inspector Ralph Franzese and Assistant Postal
Inspector-in-Charge Philip Bartlett, and the overall supervision of Inspector-In-Charge for the New
York Division Ronald J. Verrachio.
Assistant District Attorney Mariana Zelig, of the District Attorney’s Economic Crimes
Bureau, is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Gregory C.
Pavlides, Bureau Chief, and Christina Hanophy, Deputy Bureau Chief, and the overall supervision
of Executive Assistant District Attorney of the Investigations Division Peter A. Crusco and Deputy
Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Linda M. Cantoni.
It should be noted that a criminal complaint is merely an accusation and that a defendant is
presumed innocent until proven guilty.
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Note to Editors: E-version of this press release posted at www.queensda.org.