STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A New Springville man and his live-in girlfriend potentially face hefty prison time for allegedly spearheading a drug-trafficking and insurance-fraud scheme.
But that’s only the tip of their legal woes.
State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman wants to get his hands on the proceeds from Michael Mancusi and Shannon Daniell’s alleged multi-year scam.
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Schneiderman recently filed a lawsuit seeking the forfeiture of more than $232,000 in cash the couple realized from their alleged crimes, plus two cars and at least $150,000 in damages.
The civil action was commenced in state Supreme Court, St. George.
Mancusi, 27, and Ms. Daniell, 23, face up to 20 years behind bars on an array of felony charges, including drug possession, grand larceny and insurance fraud, brought three weeks ago under a separate criminal docket, in Stapleton Criminal Court.
“We have shut down a dangerous scheme that dealt illegal prescription drugs at the taxpayers’ expense,” Schneiderman said then in announcing the busts. “The arrest of this major drug trafficker and his associates will make our streets safer, and sends a message to would-be criminals to think twice before dealing drugs in New York state.”
Authorities said the scheme spread from Staten Island to the rest of the city and Long Island.
It was set in motion more than five years ago when Mancusi got into two “purported” motor vehicle accidents on Jan. 6 and 9, 2007. In the latter incident, Mancusi crashed into a city bus on Hylan Boulevard, according to the criminal complaint filed against him.
He collected more than $50,000 in no-fault insurance benefits and another $51,000 in Social Security disability benefits, and filed a civil lawsuit against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, testifying that he used a cane, a back brace and bilateral knee braces every day, according to the complaint.
From August 2011 to this past July, Mancusi filled out prescriptions from five different doctors and two physician’s assistants for 5,890 tablets of the painkiller oxycodone, 1,170 tablets of alprazolam, an anti-anxiety drug sold as Xanax, and 205 transdermal patches of the painkiller fentanyl, the complaint alleges.
Most of those oxycodone pills were bought with Mancusi’s Medicaid benefits, investigators allege.
Despite his allegations, video surveillance allegedly showed Mancusi wasn’t as disabled as he claimed, said prosecutors.
Mancusi and Ms. Daniell sold the drugs, typically negotiating with their buyers in text-message conversations, authorities charge.
They also allegedly peddled drugs obtained by Ms. Daniell’s mother, Nancy Daniell-Rivera, who’s also been criminally charged, said authorities. Criminal charges were also levied against two repeat customers, one, a Fort Wadsworth resident, the other, a Long Island man. All of the criminal cases, including Mancusi and Ms. Daniell’s, are pending.
When authorities raided Ms. Daniell’s Rockand Avenue home last month they found an array of drugs, bundles of cash amounting to $48,000, and several pieces of jewelry in a basement safe, court papers allege.
The civil suit seeks forfeiture of $232,110 in proceeds from the alleged criminal enterprise, along with a minimum of $150,000 in damages for allegedly filing false insurance claims. The attorney general also wants to seize the two vehicles purportedly used in the accidents — a 2010 Lincoln Navigator and a 1999 Mercury Marquis.
Those vehicles are owned by Anthony J. Marrazzo, said court papers. Marrazzo has not been criminally charged, but was named a co-defendant in the civil suit.
Court papers did not include his pedigree information, and attempts to contact him were unsuccessful.
Both Mancusi and Ms. Daniell are in jail — he was remanded and she is being held in lieu of $200,000 bail, according to online records of the city Correction Department.
Mancusi’s lawyer, Leo Duval, and Ms. Daniell’s attorney could not immediately be reached Thursday for comment.
