The owner of the crime-scene cleanup company that won a coveted city contract to sanitize the Harlem apartment of Dr. Craig Spencer after he tested positive for Ebola is a convicted felon who once ran a bogus mortgage business, according to a new report.
Mayor de Blasio’s office didn’t know about the shady past of Salvatore Pane until Monday — and they’ve since severed ties to the firm, called Bio-Recovery Corp., BuzzFeed reported Friday.
It’s another embarrassment for de Blasio, who apparently didn’t know he was hiring an ex-con to take on the very public cleanup of the Ebola-stricken doctor’s pad.
“The city first became aware of this situation this week, and has been reviewing the facts,” Phil Walzak, a spokesman for the mayor, told BuzzFeed. “Bio- Recovery has not received any further work from the city as we review this situation.”
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman threw up a red flag after realizing Pane was the same person the AG’s Office had successfully prosecuted in 2010 for “engaging in fraudulent and illegal acts,” officials told the Web site.
Pane has since changed the spelling of his last name to “Pain,” making it difficult to do background checks on him.
“We will continue to monitor the situation, provide any assistance our state and city partners request, and take any actions we deem necessary to protect the public interest,” said Damien LaVera, a spokeswoman for the AG.
Salvatore Pane
As New York attorney general, Gov. Cuomo was the one who sued Pane back in 2010, saying Pane and his companies “engaged in fraudulent, deceptive and illegal business practices that violated New York’s consumer protection and real-property laws.”
Those companies claimed to offer expert advice to people with distressed mortgages. A permanent injunction also was filed against them.
Pane spent nine months in prison, from June 2010 to March 2011, on a felony charge for operating a vehicle without a license.
But he told BuzzFeed he had cleaned up his act and turned his life around.
“I hope I’ve done what I’ve had to do to rebuild my life,” he said.
“I’m not a bad guy.”
City officials inspected his company’s cleanup work at Spencer’s apartment and found it to be up to par.
Bio-Recovery — contracted on a case-by-case basis — was hired to clean and sterilize Spencer’s place, and also cleaned up the Williamsburg bowling alley where Spencer rolled a few frames before he was diagnosed with the deadly disease.
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