Staff
August 30, 2025
MAHOPAC- A Mahopac man has been charged with wire fraud arising out of a scheme to defraud a regulated utility company by allegedly performing fraudulent safety inspections of natural gas pipelines the utility was installing throughout Westchester and the Big Apple.
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, and the New York State Inspector General, Lucy Lang, Friday announced the unsealing of an indictment charging 40 year old Michael Vasconcellos along with his co-conspirator Liam Treibert of North Carolina in connection with the case.
Clayton alleged the two men “violated the trust placed in them to ensure the safety of natural gas pipelines that were being installed. They lied about having performed hundreds of inspections and then covered up those lies with fraudulent paperwork. Their actions put the lives of New Yorkers at risk.”
At a news conference Lang said: “When deliberate misconduct – as alleged here – puts entire communities at risk, those responsible must face swift and decisive consequences. The arrests demonstrate my agency’s unwavering commitment to protecting critical infrastructure and pursuing accountability on behalf of all New Yorkers.”
The indictment charged between 2016 and 2020, the pair was supposed to perform safety inspections of welds on natural gas pipelines that were being installed throughout New York City and Westchester County. Those inspections were necessary to ensure that the welds did not contain defects that could cause gas leaks or explosions. The duo reportedly lied about having inspected hundreds of welds that they never actually reviewed and created fraudulent records to cover up what they had done. As a result, the unidentified utility paid for hundreds of sham inspections while being deceived by the two men into thinking that its pipelines had passed critical safety tests.
Vasconcellos and the 30 year old Treibert were each charged with one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in a federal prison if found guilty.
