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Used Albany
Funds
Used Legislative Pork Speaking of the State Senator and his three co-defendants, Mr. Garcia told reporters at a press conference in his lower Manhattan headquarters that most of the chicanery was covered by "member items" that state legislators receive to distribute to worthwhile organizations and causes in their districts. In this case, he charged, Mr. Gonzalez and three co-defendants wound up "stealing that money to advance one cause: their own." Part of the problem, said city Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn - whose office first uncovered the alleged wrongdoing - is that in awarding member items, "there's no vetting that I'm aware of" to check that the organizations receiving money are actually using it for legitimate purposes.
Peculiar Payments An unidentified city agency contacted DOI Inspector General Ben Defibaugh about billings by Pathways for Youth Inc. A DOI Forensic Auditor, Val Douglas, noted that Pathways - which offered programs for children and senior citizens - was making payments to West Bronx, which was supposedly founded "to foster an interest in community affairs." According to Ms. Hearn, "Val and Ben asked themselves, 'Why would Pathways give tens of thousands of dollars to another not-for-profit with a different mission?''' Further investigation, she said showed "that West Bronx did not engage in any substantial not-for-profit activity but instead was being used primarily as a conduit by Senator Gonzalez to pay his personal expenses." Mr. Gonzalez, who was arraigned two days later, allowing him to attend the brief session of the Legislature on the day his indictment was announced, pleaded not guilty to the charges. Got Group $423G The Bronx Senator allegedly arranged for $423,000 in member-item funds to be allocated to Pathways between 1999 and 2005 while it was also receiving funding from Federal agencies including the Departments of Agriculture, Justice, and Housing and Urban Development. Over much of that same period, according to the indictment, Pathways made about $462,500 in payments to West Bronx. While Pathways provided legitimate youth and senior services, West Bronx, according to prosecutors, was largely a shell organization whose office adjoined that of Mr. Gonzalez's district office. They charged that the Senator directed West Bronx to pay more than $400,000 of his personal expenses, ranging from credit-card bills to rent for his residence in Monroe, N.Y. and a luxury apartment used by his wife in the Dominican Republic. The organization also paid for the renovation of a house in the Dominican Republic for his mother-in-law, membership fees in a vacation club in that country for Mr. Gonzalez, college tuition for his daughter, and Yankee tickets and jewelry. Legislative Cigars To illustrate where some of the money went, Mr. Garcia displayed a chart of cigar band designs and logos produced by a contractor - at a cost of roughly $8,000 for cigars produced by Mr. Gonzalez's private company, Gonzalez Rojas Cigar Company. The brand names for the cigars include "Senator" in both English and Spanish, "Assembly," "Council," and "Speaker." The alleged scheme also involved ULAF, which was ostensibly set up to benefit residents of the Dominican Republic although it was based in the Bronx home of a co-defendant, Miguel Castanos. In 2002, the indictment charges, ULAF was retained by Pathways to provide tenant and housing assistance to residents of The Bronx and northern Manhattan. It received $252,000 from Pathways, but according to the indictment that money was actually used to cover some of Mr. Gonzalez's bills and to pay Mr. Castanos, in some cases for work he was supposed to be doing in The Bronx when he was actually in the Dominican Republic. In addition to Mr. Castanos, Neil Berger, who was the executive director of Pathways, and Lucia Sanchez, a director of West Bronx who has also been identified as Mr. Gonzalez's girlfriend, were charged in the case. If convicted, all four defendants face up to 20 years in prison. | ||||||
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