MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) – A Long Island cardiologist had the office of another doctor torched, then hired someone who turned out to be an undercover police officer in a failed attempt to have the doctor hurt or killed, authorities said Wednesday.
Dr. Anthony J. Moschetto allegedly used drugs, guns and blank prescriptions as currency while trying to have the other doctor harmed amid a professional dispute, investigators said. Moschetto first allegedly hired two men to set fire to the man’s office; it happened beneath a sprinkler and damage was minimal, prosecutors said.
“He was willing to pay $5,000 to have him beaten and put in the hospital for a couple of months and pay $20,000 to have him killed,” Nassau County Assistant District Attorney Anne Donnelly said of Moschetto’s intentions. “He wanted to put him out of business so he could get his business.”
Acting District Attorney Madeline Singas said “luckily for this victim,” Moschetto was stopped.
Investigators who went to Moschetto’s home in Sands Point on Long Island’s Gold Coast – one of the nation’s wealthiest areas – found a weapons cache in a secret room that was accessed through a motorized bookshelf, they said. The weapons, which included dozens of knives, guns and a hand grenade, were displayed at a news conference Wednesday. Charges, if any, for the stash have not yet been announced.