NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A former NYC Department of Education executive in charge of school food vendors used his position to secure a contract with a company he co-owned, federal prosecutors allege.
Eric Goldstein, who served as the DOE’s CEO in the Office of School Support, illegally landed food vending contracts for his own company, Somma Foods — which made headlines four years ago for serving kids chicken with foreign objects inside, the FBI said in a complaint filed in Brooklyn federal court.
Goldstein allegedly worked with his fellow co-owners at the time — Blaine Iler, Michael Curley and Brian Twomey — to have their company distribute food in city schools through its SchoolFood program.
“I believe that Goldstein used his official position and his considerable influence within SchoolFood to aid Iler, Turley and Twomey in [Somma’s] business dealings before SchoolFood,” an FBI agent said in the criminal complaint.
The three had also rewarded Goldstein, whom they referred to internally as “Roger Rabbit,” with tens of thousands of dollars in money transfers, as they colluded to secure the school food distributions between January 2015 and December 2016 the agent said.
The three other co-owners were also arrested and charged, having “regularly reached out to Goldstein outside official NYC DOE channels to ask him to exert influence with SchoolFood staff,” the agent alleged.
Goldstein spent ten years in his DOE CEO position until Former schools Chancellor Richard Carranza fired him in 2018 over the poor performance of school bus services.
The DOE didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Goldstein was arraigned Wednesday.