jueves, 17 de diciembre de 2015

LA LEY TARDA PERO LLEGA BELLACOS DE NASSAU

LA LEY TARDA PERO LLEGA BELLACOS DE NASSAU
Por los vientos que soplan, pronto quizá estaremos viendo a los bellacos de Nassau, siendo la noticia en primera plana.

Cita Textual
El Senador Dean Skelos y su hijo son hallados culpables de soborno y extorsión
A. Mondragón / LTH

La corrupción en Albany acaba de sufrir otro severo golpe y los políticos electos, implicados en el abuso del poder, deberán poner sus barbas en remojo.

Dean Skelos, el ex Presidente del Senado de Nueva York, y su hijo Adam, fueron hallados culpables de los cargos de soborno, extorsión y conspiración, en el juicio que tuvo lugar en la Corte Federal de Manhattan.

El veredicto de los miembros del jurado tuvo lugar en el segundo día de deliberaciones y coronó un extraordinario éxito para Preet Bharara, el Fiscal Federal del Distrito Sur de Nueva York, que, en un período de dos semanas, obtuvo sendas victorias en sus juicios contra dos de los líderes más poderosos del estado  —Skelos y el ex presidente de la Asamblea Estatal, Sheldon Silver, acabando con las carreras políticas de ambos.

“Las rápidas convicciones de Sheldon Silver y Dean Skelos plantean una pregunta importante ¿cuantos procesamientos judiciales tendrán que pasar antes de que Albany de a la gente de Nueva York el gobierno honesto que se merecen?”, dijo Bharara en un comunicado, tras conocerse el veredicto el viernes 11 de diciembre.

Los miembros de la familia Skelos, incluyendo a la esposa de Dean, Gail, estaban en lágrimas después del veredicto.

El capataz del jurado, Cindy Nehlsen, dijo sobre los acusados: “Les dimos un juicio justo”.
Los Skelos fueron declarados culpables de utilizar el poder del senador, como líder del Senado, para presionar a tres empresas y darle al hijo del senador, Adam, empleos, comisiones y beneficios por más de $300,000, a cambio de favores legislativos para las empresas, y presionar al Condado de Nassau para ayudar a que una de las empresas obtuviera un contrato por el valor de $12 millones.

Tras el veredicto, Dean Skelos, de 67 años, pierde automáticamente su escaño, como resultado de ser culpable de un delito grave, finalizando así una carrera en el Senado de 30 años. Tanto él como su hijo, de 33 años, se enfrentan, en teoría, a una pena máxima de hasta 130 años de prisión, aunque es posible que reciban una sentencia mucho más corta.


El gobierno acusó a los dos de extorsionar a tres empresas –el inversionista inmobiliario Glenwood Management, de New Hyde Park, la firma de mala práctica médica Physicians Reciprocal Insurers, de Roslyn, y AbTech Industries, una empresa de Arizona afiliada a Glenwood, que consiguió un contrato del Condado de Nassau, para el tratamiento de aguas pluviales, por $12 millones.

miércoles, 16 de diciembre de 2015

CORRUPCION EN NASSAU, PROXIMAMENTE.


New York’s next big corruption scandal


There was a stunning revelation in the corruption trial that convicted Dean Skelos: Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s favorite Republican, Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, planned to “assert Fifth Amendment privilege” if called to testify about the AbTech contract, the prosecutor told the judge in a sidebar — and the feds were “not prepared to immunize” him.
AbTech is the Arizona-based environmental company that saw its financial struggles start to turn around in 2013 with a surprising $12 million public-works contract from Nassau County — after hiring Skelos’ son, Adam.
Mangano, by saying he’d take the Fifth, was asserting his fear that he’d incriminate himself if he answered prosecutors’ questions about the awarding of that contract.
This should’ve been front-page news on Long Island — particularly in the wake of allegations that federally indicted restaurateur Harendra Singh arranged and paid for some of Mangano’s vacation trips and comped him thousands of dollars of meals.
Plus, the guy Mangano has publicly called his “best friend,” First Deputy County Executive Rob Walker, did testify against Skelos. And while Walker received federal immunity for taking the stand on that case, he has no protection from other ongoing federal investigations involving Nassau County contracts for campaign donors and business pushed to a personal friend.
Finally, taped conversations between Skelos and Mangano, played at the trial, place the county executive in the mix of the AbTech scandal.
All this when Mangano’s administration is crumbling and the county’s finances are cratering.
A June 2014 report from the state comptroller suggested Nassau’s Industrial Development Authority skirts the law and grants sweetheart deals to the politically connected. The next month, an investigation by acting DA Madeline Singas concluded Nassau’s contracting process is a “recipe for corruption” because it’s not insulated “from improper influence, manipulation, collusion and fraud.”
A proposal like the AbTech deal, the DA observed, “illustrates a systemic failure of Nassau County’s procurement and contract management process to ward off corruption.”
As for Nassau’s finances, Mangano has brought the county to the edge of fiscal insolvency — and kept it there, even as homeowners pay the highest property taxes in the state. The county’s operating deficit, based on Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, was $189.2 million in fiscal year 2014 and is projected to hit $188.2 million in 2015, $211.4 million in 2016, $302.1 million in 2018 and in 2019, a staggering $351.3 million.
Sadly, the governor has contributed to this fiscal mess. To ingratiate himself with Mangano, Cuomo in 2013 appointed local political hack Jon Kaiman as chairman of the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority (a state control board on which I served as a director from 2010 to 2014) instead of appointing a municipal-finance expert.
Kaiman, who also gets paid $150,000 a year as Cuomo’s amorphous Long Island Sandy recovery czar, negotiated in 2014 what he called a cost-neutral wage settlement with Nassau’s public-employee unions. The ludicrous deal has actually driven the county deeper into the red to the tune of $70 million a year.
Coincidentally, after the dumbing-down of the financial control board, Republican Mangano endorsed Democrat Cuomo in his bid for a second gubernatorial term.
Because the agenda of Nassau’s special interests took precedence over the general public, the law is breathing down the neck of Mangano and his GOP confreres on multiple fronts. Mangano, government vendors, the county’s flawed bidding process and the financial records of Republican clubs are being investigated, separately or in related investigations.
Hence, to avoid further corruption, Cuomo’s award on Dec. 10 of about $50 million in capital grants and state tax credits to Nassau County for government and private-sector projects must be postponed until Mangano’s recommendations — like the $3 million for county-owned Nassau Hub infrastructure improvements and Grumman studios run by a Mangano donor — are vetted to ensure they weren’t driven by cronyism or campaign contributions.
While the mounting scandals might force Mangano to resign from office, his misguided and reckless decisions will have long-term consequences.
Current taxpayers, their children and grandchildren will be paying off the debt incurred to finance his hijinks for decades to come.
George J. Marlin’s latest book is “Christian Persecutions in the Middle East: A Twenty-First Century Tragedy.”