Ex-NYRA exec sentenced

Clement Imperato, the former New York Racing Association vice president of mutuels who pleaded guilty to conspiracy earlier this year, was sentenced on Monday to four months in prison and ordered to pay $237,000 in restitution, according to a spokesman for federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York.

Imperato had pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to allow NYRA mutuel tellers to evade taxes. Twenty tellers have been convicted on tax-evasion charges over the past three years. Another NYRA executive, Vince Hogan, also entered a guilty plea to conspiracy, but a sentencing date has not been scheduled, according to the prosecutors' spokesman, Robert Nardoza.

Imperato and Hogan were indicted last year as part of a deferred prosecution agreement that NYRA reached with federal prosecutors. As part of the agreement, NYRA has agreed to operate under the guidance of a court-appointed monitor until next summer.

Sentencing guidelines called for 12 to 16 months of prison time, but the sentence was reduced because Imperato, 70, and his wife are in poor health. Imperato was also put on probation for the three years following his release and ordered to do 100 hours of community service in each of those years.