GOWANUS — A Brooklyn bus company owner pleaded guilty Nov. 30 to arson and conspiracy in connection with a 2013 fire that was set after a neighborhood dispute over idling buses.
Abdul Mouna, 55, pleaded guilty to second-degree arson, a felony, and is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 8, 2016, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney's office.
Mouna's lawyer, high-profile defense attorney Benjamin Brafman, declined to comment.
Mouna was arrested in January 2014 after FDNY fire marshals investigated a small fire at a business at Union and Nevins streets, across the street from Mouna's bus company. The fire started after a rock was tossed through a plate-glass window, followed by a liquid accelerant, a book of matches and a lit cigarette.
The owner of the business, along with other locals, had long complained about Mouna's buses idling and taking up parking spots in a rapidly changing corner of Gowanus.
Fire Marshal investigators said in 2014 that Mouna and an accomplice, Jose Andujar, conspired to set the blaze to retaliate against neighbors who clashed with Mouna.
According to a criminal complaint and indictment, Mouna offered to pay Andujar $500 to "burn down" the business across from his bus depot. The two men hatched a plan that Andujar would start the fire when Mouna was in North Carolina. Mouna would leave the security cameras at his bus depot off, and stash a bottle full of accelerant for Andujar inside the depot's gate, according to the court documents.
Andujar completed the task, "saw a flash," then called Mouna to tell him the job was done, according to the criminal complaint. No one was injured in the fire, which caused minimal damage.
FDNY Fire Marshals got a break in the case when they discovered a cigarette butt in a planter next to the broken window. DNA on the cigarette matched Andujar's.
Andujar is still awaiting trial, according to court records.
