Dr. Developer guilty of wire and mail fraud

IN 1989, Michael Yaron begged a federal judge in Philadelphia for another chance, one more opportunity to use his Oxford education and business prowess for good.

It wasn't the first time Yaron, a Philadelphia developer, philanthropist and political donor, had asked the court for mercy and it might not be his last. On Feb. 2, Yaron, 67, and three other individuals were convicted of wire and mail fraud in Manhattan stemming from an eight-year conspiracy involving kickbacks in excess of $2 million, the FBI said in a recent news release.

"I ask for the mercy of the court to find a way I can continue to be productive and not find a way to fall back to what I was before," Yaron said back in 1989, right before he was sentenced to a year in prison for defrauding two insurance companies.

Yaron, who refers to himself as "Dr. Yaron" because of his doctorate in engineering and physics from Oxford, developed numerous properties here, including the Rittenhouse Bed & Breakfast and the Seamen's Church Institute where MTV's "Real World: Philadelphia" was filmed.

The FBI said that he received asbestos-removal and construction contracts at New York Presbyterian Hospital for two of his companies, Cambridge Environmental & Construction Corp. and Oxford Construction & Development Corp., because he paid about $2.3 million in kickbacks starting in 2000.

Neither Yaron, a resident of Meadowbrook, Montgomery County, nor his attorneys could be reached for comment yesterday. No one answered at Yaron Properties, his offices on Arch Street in Old City.

Bucks County native Moshe Buchnik, a president of two asbestos-abatement companies, was also convicted after the four-week trial. Santo Saglimbeni, a former vice president of facilities operations at the hospital, and Emilio "Tony" Figueroa, a former director of facilities operations at the hospital, were also convicted. The FBI said the two former hospital employees steered contracts to Yaron and Buchnik in exchange for the kickbacks.

"This verdict sends a clear message that corrupt purchasing officials and the contractors who paid them kickbacks will be held accountable for this type of illegal conduct," said Sharis A. Pozen, acting assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division.

During the same period he was wiring kickbacks to New York, Yaron was a major developer in Old City. According to his website, he won a 2004 award from the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia for his work on Merchant's Row. The company also manages several luxury apartment buildings.

Yaron, who was convicted of dumping hazardous waste in 1983, will be sentenced on June 20.