Convicted Queens Trash-Hauler Was 'Consultant' For DA Morgenthau

MALBA, QUEENS — A Queens man busted last month for bribing a city college employee to hire his waste-management company previously worked as a so-called "consultant" for longtime New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, whose legacy of prosecuting white-collar crime included a focus on dismantling organized crime and fraud in the trash-hauling industry.

Malba resident George Kalergios pleaded guilty last month to federal bribery charges, after prosecutors accused him of doling out more than $11,000 in bribes to a facilities director for an exclusive contract removing the unnamed college's garbage.

Unmentioned in that case were Kalergios' deep ties to law enforcement, including four years working as a consultant for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office under Morgenthau, a spokesperson for the DA's office confirmed to Patch.

Kalergios also previously worked for the NYPD as a detective, a police spokesperson confirmed, and at one point was assigned to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

The NYPD did not respond to additional questions about Kalergios' service or his pension. (The NYPD has long refused to release information on individual police officers' taxpayer-funded pensions, claiming that such disclosures would "endanger the life or safety" of former officers.)

A spokesperson for the DA's office confirmed that Kalergios retired from his consultant gig in February 2010, shortly after current District Attorney Cy Vance took office and replaced Morgenthau, who died in 2019. The spokesperson, Naomi Puzzello, said the office could not provide information on Kalergios' salary or pension.

Kalergios' lawyers did not respond to an emailed request for comment, and Kalergios could not be reached directly for comment.

The title of consultant betrays little detail about what Kalergios did for Morgenthau, but the book "Unfinished Business: The Mother Trucker" by the businesswoman Nadine Shelby Schramm, who refers to Kalergios as a friend, identified him as an assistant to Morgenthau. (In Schramm's book, she recounts Kalergios taking her to practice shooting at a military range, alongside a large group of FBI agents.)

Kalergios was close enough to Morgenthau to attend a 2009 Police Athletic League dinner honoring Morgenthau at The Pierre Hotel, where other guests included Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.

At the time Kalergios worked for Morgenthau, he was already involved in the waste-management industry. He formed his company Zeus Waste Management, named in his recent plea deal, in 2005, state corporation records show.

Morgenthau had previously taken aim at the industry with dozens of indictments accusing trash-hauling companies of rigging bids through trade groups controlled by the Gambino and Genovese crime families.

Faced with Morgenthau's racketeering case, plus new licensing requirements by then-mayor Rudy Giuliani, many of those companies sold their interests to national companies — which appears to have created an opening for new players like Kalergios' Zeus Waste Management that could manage to secure a license.

It's unclear whether Morgenthau or the DA's office knew of Kalergios' enterprise.

Even after Kalergios retired in 2010, he continued cultivating close ties with the DA's office: In June of that year, he was pictured at a fundraiser for Vance at the home of billionaire supermarket mogul and former mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis.

Since then, Kalergios has remained an active political donor. He has given tens of thousands of dollars to local candidates since 2005, according to a Patch analysis of city and state campaign finance records.

Last month, mayoral candidate Scott Stringer and city comptroller candidate David Weprin said they returned their donations from Kalergios, the Queens Daily Eagle reported.

Kalergios also owns the home-building company Tres Construction and the multi-service contractor EKB Services, Inc., both based in Queens, according to court records.

Kalergios was released last month on $250,000 bond and has been ordered not to travel outside New York City, Long Island or Delaware County, New York, court records show.