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EX-ED. DEPT. TECHIES FAIL CONFLICT LAW 101

The city fined five former Department of Education staff members yesterday for soliciting city business within a year of leaving their posts, a violation of New York’s conflict-of-interest law.

Karen Diaz, John Ferro, Thomas Guarino, Susannah Moran and Bennett Sender were School District 4 technology workers when they left the department late in 2001 to form TechKnow Associates Corp.

The company, based in Cranbury, NJ, marketed and sold computer products to the department. The city’s Conflicts of Interest Board found that, prior to an April 2002 conference, several computer vendors each paid TechKnow $1,200 to get their products pitched to the department’s technology staff.

The five admitted making presentations on the vendors’ behalf but denied knowing that they were not allowed to engage their former agency for up to a year after quitting, as per the city’s conflicts-of-interest law.

Calls to TechKnow and the five workers’ Manhattan lawyer, Claude Millman, were not returned.

Ferro, as president of TechKnow, and Sender, as its CEO, were each fined $2,500. The others were fined $1,500 apiece.

Sender was also fined $2,500 for operating a tour-bus firm that did business with the Department of Education while he still worked there.

A spokeswoman for the Conflicts of Interest Board declined comment when asked why it took the board six years to resolve these cases.

yoav.gonen@nypost.com