Two days after a devastating limousine crash in upstate New York killed 20 people, officials disclosed new details that suggested that the trip never should have been allowed to happen, the New York Times reports. Among the issues: the driver had an improper license. The limousine company had a trail of failed inspections and ties to a scheme to illegally obtain driver’s licenses. The limousine itself had been deemed unsafe. Mounting questions about the accident centered on the limousine company, Prestige Limousine, which had a shoddy record, operated out of a back room in a low-budget hotel and had a history of suspicious dealings that seemed to extend to Dubai. Officials have moved to suspend the company’s operations and seize its vehicles. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the limousine had failed an inspection last month and “was not supposed to be on the road.”
Prestige had three vehicles that repeatedly failed inspections. The owner of the company, Shahed Hussain, has the same name and address as that of a former FBI informant who has testified in two prominent terrorism cases. A law enforcement official suggested that his son may operate the limousine company. It is based at the Crest Hotel and Suites in Gansevoort, N.Y., a small town north of Albany. The hotel manager identified the owner only as “Malik” and said he lived in Dubai. Hussain, the informant, went by Malik when he helped the FBI infiltrate a mosque in Albany. The limousine driver, identified on social media as Scott Lisinicchia, “did not have the appropriate driver’s license to be operating that vehicle,” Cuomo said. Officials said the crash in Schoharie, N.Y., a small town about 40 miles west of Albany, was the worst transportation-related accident in the country in nine years, since a 2009 plane crash outside Buffalo killed 50 people.