Thursday, June 15, 2017

ART VANDELAY THE ARCHITECT


          You can't make this stuff up in a million years

Remember in the hilarious Seinfeld TV series there was the character George Costanza who would sometimes use the alias "Art Vandelay, the Architect of Vandelay Industries" when he pretended to have various professional occupations, so that he could impress others.

Remember Jerry Seinfeld had a character called Newman as his neighbor, who was his arch nemesis.


                                  George Costanza Alias Art Vandley of Vandelay Industries



All the above was part of a make believe sitcom, but real life  sometimes has a way of bizarrely becoming the same as the make believe. 

Can't make this shit up, if I tried.

The story below is true, and the names are real.


Paul J. Newman pleaded guilty this week to six felonies for defrauding construction companies, business owners and municipalities throughout the Albany, New York region by pretending to be a licensed and registered architect, according to the attorney general's office.

Newman, who was the sole employee of Cohesion Studios, Inc. (“Cohesion”) in Rensselaer, is expected to be sentenced to 2 1/3 to 7 years in state prison and enter into confessions of judgment in favor of his victims, totaling more than $115,000.


“Throughout the course of his fraudulent career, the defendant repeatedly demonstrated a disregard for the public safety of New Yorkers and a determination to cheat the system,” Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a prepared statement. “The state law is clear – no license, no architectural work for you. No one is above that standard.”

The AG's office called the investigation "Operation Vandelay Industries," a cheeky reference to George Costanza on the TV sitcom "Seinfeld," the hapless character who used the alias "Art Vandelay" when he pretended to have various jobs, including an architect.

Newman was arrested and charged in April with 58 felonies related to his unauthorized practice of architecture, forgery and submission of documents on more than 100 properties in Saratoga, Albany, and Rensselaer counties.