Daily News from New York, New York • 314

DAILY NEWS, FRlDATrSlARCH 194 I5 357 I fill 0s By RICHARD MESEROLE Twelve men, who allegedly bilked Brooklyn homeowners out of more than $110,000 through five different home improvement companies, were indicted yesterday by a Brooklyn grand jury The indicements, totaling 218 counts, charge that the dozen used such methods as "bait and switch" advertising, the obtain ing of fraudulent financing, and the forging of customers' signa tures on various documents. The indictments stem from a four-month investigation conducted jointly by the city's Department of Consumer Affairs 000 in 10 years advertising on a local radio station. Greenberg advertised as "Big Al," of "Soul Construction, license number 676-067," according to Gold, offering basement, kitchen and bathroom remodeling work at bargain prices. Gold said the license number was a phony, that the phone number belonged to Expert Remodeling and that Soul Construction did not exist legally. Fraud, Forgery Charged Greenberg was accused of fraudulently obtaining signatures on completion certificates designed to protect the consumer from homeowners who financed improvement work through FHA mortgages.

Gold said many customers unwittingly signed the certificates when they signed loan applications or finance agreements. Some victims told in and the Brooklyn district attor ney's office. Blacks, Hasidics Victimized I i-i I fx A District Attorney Eugene Gold sai I the defendants cheated the homeowners on contracts total ing more than $175,000, that the work was rarely completed, "and in most instances the quality of the work was shoddy, the ma terials substandard." Most of the victims were blacks and Hasidic Eugene Gold Jews, he said. Gold said one of the defend ants, Albert Greenberg, 40, of 54 Richfield Plainview, L.I., president of Expert Remodeling of 781 Old Country Road, Plainview, spent more than News pnoto by Ed Molinari Deputies lead a defendant in home improvement case, Albert Green-berg, from Brooklyn district attorney's office. vestigators their names had been forged.

Greenberg was charged on 31 counts, including grand larceny, forgery, possession of forged instruments, fraudulently obtaining a signature, false advertising and administrative code violations. If convicted on all counts he could be sentenced to 94 years in jail. Another defendant, Vincent S1.76B Construction Budget Yanes, owner of Yanes Construction who was charged on 33 counts, including grand larceny, and administrative code By ALFRED MIELE A city construction budget for fiscal year beginning July 1, $53 million iKre than that proposed by Mayor Beame last month, was approved by the City Council violations, allegedly never fin and Board of Estimate yesterday. ished remodebng work he started. He faces a possible 55-year prison term if convicted.

The budget action also gives the council a chance to wrest jobs than they had contracted originally to pay. Besides Greenburg and Yanes, others indicted were Bernard Lavender, 155 The Hem, East Islip, L.I., president of All-Weather, who faces a sentence of 140 years if convicted on various charges; Robert Kuno. a salesman for Lavender of 1706 Glenmore East Meadow, L.I., and Ben Samuels, another of Lavender's salesmen, of 1315 E. 51st Brooklyn. Also Frank Mirabile, an employe of both Lavender and Expert Remodeling, of 2065 E.

37th Brooklyn; Mordecai Platkewicz, a salesman for Greenberg, of Flatbush Brooklyn and William Rosenberg, another of Green-berg's salesman of 115 E. 92d Manhattan. Seven Being Sought The president of Grandview, Harry Nikias, of 769 E. Carl St, Baldwin, faces a possible 318-year prison sentence if convicted. Mario Falco, a salesman for Nikias, faces a possible 269-year sentence and Mike Hammer, another of Nikias' salesmen, a possible 269 years.

Also charged is David Mieneke, a principal of Build-It-Fix-It. Gold said Tlatkewicz, Samuels, Rosenberg, Falco, Hammer, Yanes and Mieneke are still ling sought. 30G Headache Charged Gold said that one homeowner paid Yanes $22,000 cash for plumbing, electrical and general remodeling work, and ended up 4th Ave. Funds also are provided for rehabilitation of Clara Barton High School, Public School 138, Junior High School 240 and Junior High School 246, all in Brooklyn. Funds also are included for the restoration of the historic Wy-koff House, rehabilitation of the Brooklyn Central Library and for improvements to the emergency room at Coney Island Hospital.

For Queens, funds were added for development of an athletic field at Andrew Jackson High School, a site for a new Public School 23 in Flushing, design funds for the Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows Park. Lump-sum allocations for construction of needed storm sewers in Queens were hiked by $500,000 gued that the four programs, the Office of Neighborhood Government, District Cabinets, the Neighborhood Action Program and the Mayor's Urban Action Task Force, should be consolidated to provide a more efficient distribution of city services to neighborhoods. In reality, local councilmen want a piece of the patronage action in those programs. Beame confronted with a balky Council tha' threatened to hold up passage of the" budget, then agreed to a compromise. Under the agreement, a commit of five councilmen, two borough presidents and a representative cf the mayor will oversee the programs and recommend restructuring.

Other amendments provide funds to start construction of two Brooklyn schools. Both a piece of the neighborhood action programs patronage pie from Mayor Beame. By a series of fiscal maneuvers, the council and estimate board claimed to have "added" $64 million for schools, libraries, parks and sewers. These funds included $1 million for renovating Central Park, bringing the total allocation up to $4.5 million. Beame had cut an original allocation by the city Planning Commission to $3.5 million.

Beame Yields Following several heated bargaining sessions at Gracie Mansion and City Hall during the week, Beame was forced into accepting a compromise on control of four neighborhood action programs which are slated to receive million in the new budget plus $6.8 million in unspent Ostensibly, the Council ar paying another contractor $8,000 just to correct building violations Yanes created. In another case, said Gold, Yanes collected $3,000 for a job, for which the homeowner had to shell out another $2,700 to correct violations. According to the district attorney, two companies, All-Weather Exteriors Inc. of 224-34 Braddock Bellerose, Queens, and Grandview Aluminum Siding Co. of 19 Grand Baldwin, L.I., both were involved in obtaining fraudulent mortgages.

In all cases, said Gold, the complainants learned of the mortgages only after banks threatened to foreclose, and in each case, the homeowners discovered they owed more for the Wore news of your con? unity begins following Page 57. to S2 million and additional pav- schools. Public School 322 and Intermediate School 2S0, will be ing funds of $3.8 million were built at a site at Baltic St. and included lor yueens. F3 yV9 5 3 tf id 4 who really wanted tj have a dog and not by someboJy up to mischief," she said.

Mrs. Lowery said they had already found temporary place ior Brownie and the six pups with a woman in Ridgewood, N.J. She said Lowery and Raccuglia would still take Brownie and the remaining puppy to Ridgewood today. "This lady, who is with an organization cai'ed Friends of Animals, told us that if we did happen to place any of the puppies to be sure to tell people that if they decided in a month or two that they didn't really want a dog, to bring them back to us and not just throw them out," Mrs. Lowery said.

"She said that's what causes the stray dog problem." Raccuglia had taken up a collection from fellow dockmen to pay boarding expenses for Brownie and the litter. Mrs. Lowery said the Ridgewood woman had agreed to keep all the dogs until permanent homes could be found for them. The dockmen had been In a hurry to find Quarters for the dogs because the junk heap By JEAN CRAFTON Five of the puppies whelped on a junk heap at Brooklyn's State Pier and adopted by soft-hearted longshoremen, disappeared yesterday between the noon lunch hour and the afternoon coffee break. "My husband was just beside himself," said Mrs.

Vincent Lowery yesterday shortly after he called her at home to say that all but one of the puppies was missing. Lowery, a checker on the docks, and Sal Raccuglia, a head sorter, had been caring for Brownie, a fiendly mongrel, and her new family since last week when they discovered the litter hidden beneath a huge stack of wooden pallets. Raccuglia and Lowery were on a campaign to find homes for the dogs but they had not planned for it to happen this way. "My husband thinks it had to be somebody in the neighborhood," said Mrs. Lowery, who came all the way from Jackson Heights, twice which Brownie chose for their home is being News photo by Ed Motinart Vin Lowery, a checker at the Columbia St.

pier, puts out some food I vfor mom as pup feed before fi of the Jitter were stolen. last weekend to feed Brownie and her pups. "We just hope they were.