Vargani pleads guilty
Varganyi appeared before the Honorable Justice Thomas Farber on 5 October 2011 to make his plea, in a closed session. In an agreement with prosecutors from the New York district attorney’s office, he pleaded guilty and agreed to testify in the upcoming trial against Lomma. He agreed to testify that he had ordered bearings from a Chinese manufacturer, RTR, on Lomma’s behalf, and that two US manufacturers could have made the bearings, but with longer waiting times.
He will testify that RTR warned him they could not perform welds he had requested, and that he should not have accepted their sales manager’s subsequent agreement to perform the welding. That subsequent agreement by RTR was detailed by Cranes Today in March 2010: it looks likely that Lomma’s defence will raise this agreement. The reasons for RTR’s agreement and Varganyi’s testimony that he “should not have accepted” it were not explained in the 5 October hearing.
As a result of his plea and co-operation, the court agreed not to impose a prison sentence. The judge explained to 65-year-old Varganyi before his plea that he could have been facing up to 15 years in prison for the most serious offence he was charged with; he also made clear that by pleading guilty he would not have the chance to try to clear himself in front of a jury.
Ordering the bearing
A public transcript of the hearing lays out the testimony Varganyi has agreed to make. Deborah Hickey, an attorney working for New York district attorney Cyrus Vance outlined the testimony that Varganyi would give.
According to his agreement, Varganyi worked for New York Crane, with responsibilities including service and maintenance of Lomma’s Kodiak cranes, and supervising others in this. In May 2007, it became apparent that those cranes needed new bearings for the repair of their turntables.
There were two companies in the US able to replace the bearings, including the original bearing manufacturer. Varganyi will testify that Lomma was dissatisfied with the time it would take these companies to deliver the bearings. He will say that he understood his supervisors did not want to wait for these US companies to replace the bearings.
Varganyi agreed that in late June or July of 2007, with Lomma’s knowledge, permission and authority, he located a bearing manufacturer in China. He will say that Lomma never asked any questions about the company, and never asked Varganyi to make inquiries about RTR’s reputation or the quality of its work.
Varganyi will say he emailed RTR’s sales manager, sending specifications and drawings of the bearing.
He will testify that he did not have an engineering degree, or any training in the designor manufacture of these parts, and that Lomma knew this. He will also testify that Lomma never asked what Varganyi was providing to RTR, or obtain the assistance of a professional engineer or any person competent to design as complex a piece of equipment as a bearing.
Welding questions
The specifications Varganyi sent, he will say, called for welding to be done by the bearing manufacturer. He will say RTR’s sales manager wrote to him warning this should be done by New York Crane or a company other than RTR.
Varganyi agreed he will testify that he “should not have accepted her subsequent agreement to perform the welding.” The transcript does not explain why RTR agreed to perform the welding, or why Varganyi now says he should not have accepted this agreement.
Varganyi will testify that while he was ordering he bearing, Lomma never advised him of requirements that New York department of buildings had communicated to him before such a bearing could be used on a crane operating in the city.
A flawed second bearing
The bearing arrived in December 2007, after Varganyi had procured a final drawing of the bearing from RTR for his supervisors to review. Varganyi will say that neither he, nor, as far as he knows, Lomma or anyone else who worked for him, arranged for the weld to be tested. The bearing was placed on a Kodiak crane at work on the corner of East 91st Street and First Avenue in April 2008.
Later the same month, a second bearing ordered from RTR arrived. Varganyi will testify that this was overtly flawed, that he told RTR, and that they agreed to pay for its repair, and that Lomma knew about this arrangement. Despite the flaw with the second bearing, Varganyi will testify, neither he nor Lomma made any attempt to verify the adequacy of the weld on the first bearing, which remained on the turntable of the 91st Street crane.
On 30 May 2008, the manufacturer’s weld on the first bearing received from RTR broke apart. The upper portion of the crane fell to the ground, killing Donald Leo and Ramadan Kurtaj.
James Lomma will next appear in court on 14 November. Lomma’s lawyer, Andrew Lankler, quoted in the New York Times, says that, “In the end, the evidence will demonstrate that no one at New York Crane, including Mr. Varganyi, violated any criminal laws.”
Related Files
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