$100M school food contract likely headed to ‘bid-rigger’

The Department of Education is poised to award a $ 100 million contract to a food company owned by two cousins who bought it from their fathers — one of whom served time for bid rigging on a school- food contract, The Post has learned.

H. Schrier & Co., of Brooklyn, is the leading contender to win the contract to supply food to schools in southern Brooklyn and Staten Island for five years starting in July — although schools Special Investigation Commissioner Richard Condon once blasted the firm as a “non-responsible bidder.’’

Six firms bid, but Schrier has been told it will get the contract — which could wind up being worth $ 160 million with three one-year extensions.

“The activities of Schrier must create serious concern for the DOE with respect to any current or future contracts,” Condon found in a 2004 report. “Schrier’s history of exploiting DOE bidding procedures, sometimes deceptively, is indicative of how it might act on any food contract.”

More than a decade ago, Schrier had a contract to operate DOE food warehouses, which Condon said gave it inside information about how much food the state and feds would donate and how much the city would have to supply.

Condon said that allowed Schrier to make unrealistically “lowball” bids for supply contracts, which wound up costing the city some $ 8 million more than it would have had to pay a legitimate contractor that made a higher bid.

Schrier is owned by cousins David and Jonathan Liebertoff, who bought it from their dads, brothers Stuart and Gary Liebertoff respectively.

Stuart and Gary had earlier owned another company, Irving Liebertoff Inc., which was indicted in a 2000 federal bid-rigging scandal involving DOE contracts for frozen food and fresh produce.

Irving Liebertoff Inc. wound up paying $ 6.5 million in penalties, while President Stuart Liebertoff, now 65, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and paid a $ 250,000 fine.

Court papers say Stuart — who owns homes in tony Hewlett, LI, and a 10,000-square-foot, $ 3.5 million mansion in West Palm Beach, Fla. — was one of the architects of the bid-rigging scheme, which ensnared 22 firms and sent 13 people to prison.

Schrier and the Liebertoff cousins were never accused of wrongdoing, and the actions Condon criticized occurred before the business was transferred to them.

When Irving Liebertoff Inc. went out of business, its assets were transferred to Schrier — where Stuart has until recently played an active role. It occupies the same East Flatbush building that housed Irving Liebertoff Inc., sources said.

The Post obtained a photo of Stuart attending a DOE “pre-bid” conference held in a Manhattan high school in August 2012.

Jack Grubin, a lawyer for Schrier and the Liebertoff family, insisted that elements of Condon’s report were flawed and attempts to challenge Schrier’s fitness were now unfair.

“Pursuant to an agreement with the DOE, Stuart Liebertoff will have nothing to do with the performance of the contract, and measures will be in place to confirm that fact,” he told The Post.

“There is no rational basis for these conditions. Stuart’s crime was committed in the last century. He took responsibility for it and paid the price,’’ Grubin said.

DOE spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said, “We are still working on vetting the bidders.” Condon declined to comment.

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