A Boston Fire Department District Chief has been indicted on procurement fraud and larceny charges in connection with two alleged illicit schemes to enrich himself, Attorney General Martha Coakley announced Thursday. Edward A. Scigliano, IV, 45, of Kingston, was indicted Thursday by a Suffolk County Grand Jury on five counts of procurement fraud and five counts of larceny over $250.
He is due to be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on Nov. 25.
Coakley’s office launched an investigation after the matter was referred by the Inspector General’s Office and the Boston Police Department’s Anti-Corruption Division, which conducted an initial investigation. Those two agencies worked together with the attorney general’s office throughout the remainder of the investigation. Scigliano is a Boston Fire Department District Chief and previously served as a Drillmaster at the Boston Fire Academy, according to Coakley’s office. “We allege that this defendant abused his position as a public employee in order to benefit personally,” said Coakley in a press release Thursday. “He allegedly stole tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars that should have gone back to the City of Boston, and instead, directed that money for his own personal use.” “This indictment is the result of excellent cooperation between my office and the Attorney General’s office on a very complex case involving procurement fraud,” said Massachusetts Inspector General Glenn A. Cunha. Between 2008 and 2011, Scigliano allegedly used two separate schemes to enrich himself, including one in which he profited from checks from an emergency vehicle vendor that did business with the Boston Fire Department and another scheme to personally profit from items purchased by an equipment vendor that supplied the fire department. Investigation revealed that Scigliano personally profited from checks from Greenwood Emergency Vehicles, Inc.,a fire apparatus and ambulance dealership that supplied fire trucks to the fire department. Scigliano was the principal contact between Boston Fire and Greenwood with regard to the acquisition of fire trucks. Scigliano allegedly directed Greenwood to issue checks to his personal credit cards totaling more than $32,000, money that was credit balances that were owed to the city.
Scigliano allegedly falsely represented that he was authorized by the Fire Commissioner to receive checks that were the result of credit balances on the city’s account with Greenwood. He would allegedly falsely claim that the money was for items he had purchased for the fire department. According to authorities, Scigliano also orchestrated another scheme in which he profited from items purchased by Northeast Rescue Systems, Inc., a distributer of equipment to fire departments and emergency services agencies including BFD. Scigliano allegedly arranged unauthorized exchanges for items listed in purchase orders that Northeast had pending with the city. The investigation revealed that Scigliano directed Northeast to purchase more than $14,000 worth of items for his alleged personal use instead of what was quoted in the original purchase order.
Those personal items included a 52 inch HD TV, a gas grill, a living room set, an elliptical machine, and gift cards for Home Depot and Lowes. The purchase orders, however, were never revised or cancelled to reflect the exchanges requested by Scigliano, and the city paid Northeast in full for the ultimately undelivered items.
Boston District Fire Chief charged with fraud, larceny
