Paul J. Newman, 49, was discovered back in April to have been practicing as an architect despite lacking both a license and registration. The investigation, dubbed "Operation Vandelay Industries," found that Newman, stealing the license number of a registered architect and forging a NY State Registered Architecture Stamp, had drafted architectural renderings for over 100 properties, as well as foundation inspections, field reports, energy compliance certificates and engineer letters.
The suspect was then arrested on three indictments charging him with 58 felonies related to his unauthorized practice of architecture, forgery, and submission of documents to various municipalities. In June, he entered felony guilt pleas in all three counties—Albany, Rensselaer, and Saratoga—to a total of six felony counts, including Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a class D felony; Forgery in the Second Degree, a class D felony; Unauthorized Practice of a Profession, a class E felony; and Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, a class E felony.
Today, Newman has been sentenced to serve 2 1/3 to 7 years in state prison. The sentencing took place in Saratoga and the defendant is still awaiting trials in Albany and Renssalear Counties. All of Newman's sentences will run concurrent to each other and he has also been ordered to pay his victims over $115,000 in damages.
Upon making the announcement, New York State Attorney General Schneiderman warned that "deceptively posing as a licensed and registered architect has real consequences – including prison time. Those who wish to game the system and take advantage of New Yorkers should take note: no license, no work for you. My office will continue to uphold this standard.”
18 Comments
Seems a bit excessive to me, manslaughter gives you 8 yrs (5.6 effectively) over here.
Killing someone pales in comparison to fucking with the state.
Clearly, the poor fella
He is probably more competent than most licensed architects anyways...He will take that time in prison to wrap up his AREs, I wonder if he can get a mentor/IDP supervisor there as well.
So you break the law, you go to jail - sure. But was any of the unlawful work incorrectly done? Was anyone ever put in danger? Was all the illegal work done to code? Did anyone check? Not that it matters.... Gotta pay those dues, take that pay cut, and work those weekends so you can get those hours signed off on.
Architects love this story because it makes their license seem so serious. If you look at the charges, calling himself an architect is a small detail, and in the absence of the other illegal things he did would probably result in a warning or fine. He was forging documents and using fake stamps with fake names. Furthermore he was submitting those forged documents to a govt agency. That's the real crime here. That is fraud. Regardless of whether or not he was competent, he certainly was engaged in an ongoing fraudulent scheme.
Curios to know how the authorities found out about him. What led to the investigation?
My very favorite part is the name of the effort. Not just that officials used a throwaway line from Seinfeld, but that they formally named the sting Operation Vandelay Industries. Almost nothing else matters in that story, and it does not get any better than that.
True
Yep, it's unbelievably delicious.
He was pretending to be an architect by doing foundation inspections, that's a red flag right there. Was he inspecting the aesthetics?
The article about this in the NY Daily News says he could get up to 15 years in prison if found guilty on all charges. Statistically this type of behavior is an oddity. All the "White-Collar Criminals" in politics, commercial real estate, banking and crooked lawyers and judges will never go to jail though.
To get away with it for that long though, that really says something about who in government permit offices was checking the work. Most countries in the middle east, for example, don't even have building codes, much less inspections. This happened in "The Empire State" though, and if they can castrate him and display his balls in a glass cube in the public square for all to see, justice will have been served. NY State's tax-payers have to feed him for years now, instead of just using an ankle-bracelet and enforced probation, along with hefty fines. Or a shorter sentence with say 8 years probation. But it makes for better headlines and why not add another reason to hate the White Man?
I wonder if he had insurance...
The gov could have granted him an honorary license like they did with liberskind...guess he didn't use enough acute angles...
Despite being a fraud, he obviously was competent if he got away for this long.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/200...
Ok, guess they made him take the test...
Another fraud.
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