POLICE have arrested the son of the owner of the limo company behind the weekend’s crash that killed 20 people in New York.

Nauman Hussain was charged with criminally negligent homicide associated with the crash.

Mr Hussain manages the day-to-day operations of the company Prestige Limousines, which is owned by his father, Shahed.

His dad is currently in Pakistan for a medical operation.

“The owner of the company has been away for a couple of weeks and he spends time both here and overseas,” the company’s lawyer Lee Kindlon told Good Morning America. “It’s a very common thing for him. The day-to-day operations were his son’s. They handled the calls and the bookings and the maintenance and things like that.”

Shahed Hussain worked as an informant for the FBI after the September 11 attacks. He infiltrated Muslim groups by posing as a terrorist sympathiser in at least three investigations.

Prestige Limousine has been criticised for maintaining vehicles rife with violations and for employing a driver lacking a commercial license.

Scott Lisinicchia — who was behind the wheel of the 2011 Ford Excursion before the crash — was cited for operating the same limo without a proper license by a state trooper in August.

One of the victims, Erin McGowan, texted a friend saying the party bus that was supposed to take them to Cooperstown had broken down on the way to pick them up and that the group obtained a stretch limo instead, the friend, Melissa Healey, told The New York Times.

McGowan texted that the limo was in poor condition, with its motor “making everyone deaf.” The limousine, built from a 2001 Ford Excursion, ran the stop sign, crossed three lanes of traffic and hit a parked SUV before stopping in a wooded ditch.