Sold to Kerik Regimes
Nail Door Salesman In Buy-Back Scam

By RICHARD STEIER

A businessman who sold overpriced security doors to the Correction and Police departments during the tenures of Bernard B. Kerik as Commissioner of those agencies last week was convicted Feb. 7 of scheming to buy back the doors at a bargain-basement price.

BERNARD B. KERIK: Questionable door deals.

None of the 19 doors, which sold for more than $50,000 each, were actually used by the agencies. The Correction Department kept the 15 it purchased in 2000 and 2001 in a storehouse on Rikers Island, and the four bought by the NYPD wound up in that same storehouse after they were found to be unusable at Police Headquarters.

Rival Asked 15G Less

When this newspaper reported the $1 million in purchases in 2004, it quoted another manufacturer saying he sold similar doors for about $35,000 each. Sources identified Mr. Kerik's Chief of Staff at both Correction and the NYPD, John Picciano, as the person who authorized the purchases.

No city officials have been charged, however, in connection with those transactions. Mr. Kerik after leaving city government in 2002 became a board member of DataWorld Solutions, a company that a couple of years later entered into an agreement to serve as the distributor for products sold by the manufacturer, Georal International.

The criminal case against Alan Risi that ended with last week's guilty verdict in Manhattan Supreme Court stemmed from his attempt two years ago to buy back the doors when the Department of Citywide Administrative Services solicited sealed bids for them.

Had Front Woman

While Mr. Risi submitted a bid on behalf of his firm, Georal, for $10,000, an acquaintance of his, Joanne Ruscillo, put in a bid of $35,000 on behalf of Integrated Security Corp. A DCAS official noted that Integrated listed the same address that Mr. Risi used for Georal, and it was subsequently discovered that he owned that firm, too.

Mr. Risi, who three years ago was convicted of submitting false invoices to the city under a contract he had to install and repair doors in other agencies, faces a minimum of 1-1/2 to 3 years in prison for each of the two felonies he was convicted of last week. Because of his previous felony conviction, he could be forced to serve consecutive, rather than concurrent, terms for each conviction, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office said in a statement. He will be sentenced Feb. 25.

Ms. Ruscillo was convicted of submitting documents to the city containing false statements that she was the director of a company that she neither owned nor operated. She faces up to a year behind bars when she is sentenced March 20.

Mr. Kerik is currently awaiting trial on Federal charges that include tax evasion, misusing his government positions to receive $255,000 in home renovation aid from a mob-linked contractor seeking to do business with the city and lying to White House officials about these and other matters when he was interviewed for several top jobs, including Secretary of U.S. Homeland Security.