Pittsburgher Alfonso A. Costa among those pardoned.
Pittsburgh dentist-turned-developer Alfonso A. Costa found himself in some elite company Tuesday — his name was listed in a White House press release along with several other people to whom President Donald Trump had granted full pardons or sentence commutations.
Costa, who received a presidential pardon, was in the news locally earlier this century, as a friend and business partner of eventual Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson and Steelers Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis. Both testified on Costa’s behalf when he was sentenced in federal court in 2008 after pleading guilty to health care fraud.
The FBI alleged Costa had exaggerated the extent of oral surgeries. Dr. Carson, now secretary of housing and urban development, said of Costa, “our value systems were almost identical.” Mr. Bettis told the judge he and Costa were “kind of like brothers.”
Costa got probation and was ordered to pay nearly $300,000 in fines and restitution.
Since that time, according to a profile of him in the Post-Gazette in 2015, Costa’s work in the development field has earned him millions and a real estate portfolio that stretched from Michigan to Italy.
Costa spent five years in dentistry before he bought his first development property in Monroeville in 1991. He abandoned dentistry in 2001 after the FBI interviewed him about bills submitted to insurers in relation to some 50 patients, according to court documents.
In 2007, prior to the filing of charges against Costa, he and Dr. Carson created two companies that bought an office building in Mt. Lebanon for $ 3 million,
according to the PG profile. In 2010, Mr. Bettis and former Steelers James Farrior, Hines Ward, James Harrison, LaMarr Woodley, Stevenson Sylvester and Deshea Townsend appeared at a charity auction for the Dr. Ben Carson Scholars Fund, hosted by Costa.
Costa could not be reached for comment late
Tuesday. On online link to his businesses says Costa is chairman of Costa Land Company, Inc., a real estate development, management and investment company with properties in New York, South Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Italy.