Preetsmas: In Their Own Words

PIGEON

In their own words:

Matt Spina, Discrepancies found in reports from PACs controlled by Pigeon – Buffalo News: June 28, 2009:

Bank records subpoenaed by the Erie County Board of Elections revealed that two political committees controlled by G. Steven Pigeon failed to report several donations and expenses. Here are a few that the Erie County Board of Elections says it found during an investigation:

*Citizens for Fiscal Integrity, supporting Pigeon-friend Gary Parenti in his race for Assembly in 2006, received $5,000 on Aug. 31 of that year from then-County Executive Joel A. Giambra’s committee, the Friends of Joel Giambra; $1,500 from Pigeon’s personal checking account; and $2,500 indirectly from Watermark Financial, an investment company the Securities and Exchange Commission would later allege operated a Ponzi scheme.

The Watermark check was made out to Pigeon for “legal consulting — August.”

While a total of $9,000 was deposited, the transaction was initially recorded as only a $4,000 deposit from Pigeon, the commissioners said. Giambra’s $5,000 deposit was missed, although the Friends of Joel Giambra reported making the payment.

A week after the $9,000 was collected, the Citizens for Fiscal Integrity was able to cover a $9,000 invoice from a direct-mail company that Parenti had been using.

*In mid-July of 2008, Citizens for Fiscal Integrity filed a statement saying it had no activity to report for the first half of the year. But after the county Board of Elections issued its subpoena for bank records, the committee instead filed a report saying it had received $5,000 and spent $4,000 in the first six months.

It had directly spread $3,000 to the campaigns of State Senate candidate Joe Mesi, a Democrat; Frank A. Sedita III, a Democrat running for district attorney; and Democrat Barbra Kavanaugh, running in an Assembly primary against incumbent Sam Hoyt of Buffalo.

*During the second week of June 2008, the People for Accountable Government had too little money on deposit at M&T Bank to write a $1,000 check, the county elections commissioners learned during their investigation. But the committee on June 12 deposited a $1,000 check from the Friends of Joel Giambra and then wrote a $1,000 check to the Friends of Antonio Villaraigosa, the Los Angeles mayor who was holding a fundraiser in New York City.

At the same time, the Friends of Joel Giambra wrote another $1,000 check for the Villaraigosa fund when $1,000 is the maximum that can be donated to a Los Angeles mayoral candidate.

Said Giambra: “I was not aware the money I gave to Mr. Pigeon’s PAC [political action committee] was going to any specific candidates.”

*The Erie County elections commissioners cite the Villaraigosa transaction as an example of one that exceeded contribution limits, in this case California’s. Another example involves Citizens for Fiscal Integrity and the Responsible New York fund formed by billionaire B. Thomas Golisano.

The commissioners found that Responsible New York last year gave $4,000 to Citizens for Fiscal Integrity. Noted on the check was that it was to go toward the party primary expenses for Mesi in his Senate campaign.

CFI, however, had already donated some $3,000 to Mesi’s campaign. Assuming that the $4,000 was spent on CFI’s Mesi-related expenses, commissioners reason that CFI exceeded contribution limits for the primary.

From Mark Sacha: September 27, 2009:

These matters involve the district attorney’s sworn responsibility to enforce the law and do justice in the public interest,” Sacha said. “These matters include instances where the power of the district attorney has been used improperly to protect political interests and to retaliate against me for pursuing an ongoing investigation.

“Prosecuting the powerless is easy,” he added. “The real test is when you are asked to investigate the powerful. District Attorney Sedita so far has failed the test.”

“Pigeon also helped elect Sedita as district attorney by helping him obtain the Conservative Party endorsement, one that Sedita used to get the Democratic endorsement despite Erie County Democratic Chairman Leonard R. Lenihan’s earlier support for another candidate.” – Buffalo News: September 29, 2009

“Frank Clark told [Pigeon] that if he was a cooperating witness, he would not be prosecuted. Everything that I’ve understood is, that was the arrangement.” – D.A. Frank Sedita: October 6, 2009

“Pigeon was a witness, period. He was never given immunity or asked for it. That is absolutely, positively incorrect.” – Former D.A. Frank Clark: October 6, 2009

From that same Buffalo News article,

He also asked why his office sent investigators to interview Lewis “Babe” Rotella of Niagara Falls, whose exploratory run for mayor of Niagara Falls was said by Pigeon to be the ultimate beneficiary of money he says he independently spent.

The source of that money was the focus of Sacha’s probe.

“It would have been a waste of time,” Sacha said. “And why would I be going through what I’m going through now?”

Frank Clark, meanwhile, characterized the term “cooperating witness” as a “term of art.”

“It normally means somebody gets something in return for something,” the former district attorney explained. “But whether he was a target or not a target has nothing to do with being a witness,” he said. “He was simply a witness.”

According to Clark, “[Pigeon] was never given immunity. There was no understanding — spoken or unspoken — that he be given a quid pro quo.”

“It never happened. Why would we give immunity to someone who was not cooperating and perhaps was the ultimate target?” – Sacha, on Pigeon September 30, 2009

And,

One of those allegations surrounded a $10,000 political contribution from former County Executive Joel A. Giambra to a Pigeon consulting company called Landen Associates LLC. Pigeon said it was for consulting work helping Giambra publicize his accomplishments before easing into private life.

But Giambra listed it on his campaign expense report as a political contribution — not for consulting.

Pigeon said Tuesday that report notation was a mistake.

From there, Sacha said, the money went to a company called Media Co., owned by Timothy Clark. And then, Timothy Clark made a $9,000 loan to his brother’s campaign.

Giambra’s contribution traveled the circuitous route to Paul Clark, Sacha said, without any connection to the politically toxic former county executive.

Pigeon said he paid Timothy Clark’s company for consulting work on a possible mayoral run in Niagara Falls by Lewis “Babe” Rotella.

Rotella never declared any campaign expenses or contributions from Pigeon or Timothy Clark, according to campaign reports.

And Sacha said he questioned Rotella and obtained a statement that he had never met Timothy Clark and done anything on his campaign.

Mark Sacha created a story because he was demoted for his own reasons and had his own problems.” – Steve Pigeon: June 13, 2010

“We concluded the existence of a pattern of violations of election law, some of which may involve money laundering or deliberate evasion of requirements of the election law…We thought that needed to be addressed by someone.” – Peter Kiernan, in a referral to U.S. Attorney for the SDNY Preet Bharara in 2010 (Kiernan was counsel to then-Governor David Paterson).

“They’re reckless and false, and I think he’s engaged in prosecutorial misconduct” – Steve Pigeon, discussing Mark Sacha: December 12, 2011

“I followed the election law to the letter…I was shown no favoritism because I broke no laws.” – Steve Pigeon: December 12, 2012

“This PAC is made up of a group of like-minded individuals who share the same thought processes and who are not happy with the leadership of the party” – Kristy Mazurek: September 4, 2013

“I’m not doing the dirty work of some behind-the-scenes individuals. I know every single one of the donors who has contributed to me. Whether it’s Frank Max, Steve Pigeon or Ronald McDonald, what does it matter?” – Kristy Mazurek: September 4, 2013

“I can show up as a volunteer or for lit drops or fundraisers, but I have been hands off because I know the rules and regulations. And I don’t understand these continuing, vicious attacks on Steve Pigeon. I’ve never heard such a bunch of crybabies before.” – Kristy Mazurek: September 7, 2013

“Everything was done not only to the letter but the spirit of the law,” – State Sen. Tim Kennedy: September 21, 2013

Steve Pigeon: September 21, 2013:

Pigeon labeled the Grant-Hogues letter a “frivolous action” and questioned whether Cuomo’s Moreland Commission is even charged with probing political campaigns.

“The charge is to investigate corruption of public officers,” Pigeon said, “not to be a campaign watchdog. That power still lies with the Board of Elections.

“They’re all a bunch of bellyachers, crybabies and sore losers.” – Steve Pigeon: October 30, 2013

“I have been in compliance the entire time.” – Kristy Mazurek: October 30, 2013

“Why am I the only person in Western New York they investigate? And why is their standard for me any different than for anybody else?” – Steve Pigeon: November 3, 2013

“Every dollar brought in by donors has been documented,” she said, adding that any technical errors were corrected by amendment and “duly noted.” – Kristy Mazurek: March 11, 2014

“…frivolous, political witch hunt” … any discrepancies lying at the heart of the local complaint are “technical and clerical” in nature – Steve Pigeon: March 11, 2014

“This is about an elections official destroying a document. There is no doubt it violates the law in several areas besides election law, including abuse of power. This is exceptionally serious.” – Steve Pigeon, commenting on an allegation that former Election Commissioner Dennis Ward destroyed nominating petitions: July 22, 2014

“I’ve never seen a petition with Mike Deely’s name on it – ever. I don’t know what he’s talking about.” – Dennis Ward: July 22, 2014

“These allegations are very serious. I will press this to the fullest extent of a criminal investigation and charges.” – Kristy Mazurek: July 22, 2014

“They love making accusations, but they’re the ones breaking the law.” – Steve Pigeon: July 22, 2014

Never happened. Never, ever.” – Dennis Ward: September 4, 2014

“In the presence of all, including, of note, Assemblyman Sean Ryan, Ward ripped the petitions of Deely and Walsh into pieces and tossed the shreds in the air stating that Mr. Deely would never be elected as committeeman.” – Local NYSUT chief Mike Deely Affidavit: September 4, 2014

I didn’t see any of these things happen. It’s news to me.” – Assemblyman Sean Ryan: September 4, 2014

“The issue of conflict of interest is the reason why nothing gets done. In our area, it is especially an issue because of the connection of Pigeon to Cuomo and Sedita.” – Mark Sacha: January 31, 2015

“All these years, these half-truths and innuendoes only involve me donating or spending my own money or raising money. It’s ironic that I’m now grouped with people who have been enriching themselves….In today’s atmosphere of what’s happening in New York State, I’m fine with the fact they’re finding out I followed the law.” – Steve Pigeon: February 21, 2015

“I have not done anything wrong during my role in this, and I’ve had to endure years of this. There is no direct allegation of me coordinating with a candidate or offering any quid pro quo in any way. All you’ve got to do is look at my tax return.” – Steve Pigeon: February 21, 2015

“In politics, a lot of people and reporters say a lot things. They should either show something or shut up.” – Tom Golisano: February 21, 2015

“It sounds odd, but when you look at how I live and how much I make, it really isn’t.” – Steve Pigeon: February 21, 2015

[Pigeon] blames “clerical errors” and “sloppy” record keeping on the many questions posed about the fund. “People make mistakes, but it wasn’t me,” he said. “And the reports were amended. There was nothing criminal.” – Steve Pigeon: February 21, 2015

“I don’t know what their perception of coordination is. It’s what you might perceive versus what is actually fact.” – Kristy Mazurek: February 21, 2015

“It’s probably not worth taking these yearly hits. But I will always be a player, one way or another.” – Steve Pigeon: February 21, 2015

“Frankly, I don’t see any violations of the law. There’s nothing to hide.” – Paul Cambria on his client Steve Pigeon: May 29, 2015

“He cooperated completely to the agents who came to his door on Thursday, and I am sure the results of the investigation will show that he has done nothing wrong.” Tom Eoannou, on his client Chris Grant: May 29, 2015

“Having someone conduct a search warrant on your property is a big difference from someone having a criminal charge filed against them. Obtaining a search warrant is just a fancy way of getting evidence for law enforcement. No charges have been filed against anyone in this case.” – Rod Personius on his client Steve Casey: May 29, 2015

The Western New York Progressive Caucus (“AwfulPAC”) “…currently has minimal money, or no money in it, and is dormant.” – Joel Daniels on his client Kristy Mazurek: May 29, 2015 (Ed. note: AwfulPAC claims to have over $26,000 on hand right now.)

“When The News questioned him about the discrepancy in February, longtime associate David B. Pfaff called to accept responsibility for what he also called a clerical error.” – Buffalo News: June 2, 2015

“She has cooperated … she has answered questions,” said a person who knows Mazurek and is sympathetic to her situation. “Kristy is in a very tough spot right now. Steve Pigeon is her friend, but she doesn’t want to become a target” of law enforcement. “She’s walking on a very thin line.” – Buffalo News: June 6, 2015

“I feel much more sorry for anyone who was unfairly targeted by the [AwfulPAC]. They ran vicious campaigns. They put some candidates and their families through a lot of heartache.” – Betty Jean Grant: June 6, 2015

“In the business, it’s a classic case of hiding a true contributor.” – Buffalo News: June 6, 2015

On the Eleventh Day of Preetsmas

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Earlier this week, I FOILed the CF-02 and CF-03 filings for Kristy Mazurek’s, Frank Max’s, and Steve Pigeon’s WNY Progressive Caucus or “AwfulPAC”. The CF-02 declares the type of committee being formed, declares who the treasurer will be, and where the money will be deposited. The CF-03 is a separate document filed by certain committees to inform the Board of Elections which candidates a committee will be supporting or opposing.

On August 1st, Kristy Mazurek executed the CF-02 to create the AwfulPAC. The NYS Board of Elections received this paperwork on August 22, 2014.

AwfulPAC August 2014 Filing

This document was all the PAC needed to get up and running.

As you know from previous days of Preetsmas, a PAC doesn’t really exist under New York State law – but a committee that files only this CF-02 document only has the right to raise money and donate it to political campaign committees. It is not allowed to undertake its own expenditures on behalf of campaigns (or to oppose them) unless it declares its intent to do so on a CF-03 form.

So it was that AwfulPAC raised almost $300,000 and allegedly spent all but $26,000 of it within the span of about a month. It did not, however, simply raise money and then donate it to campaign committees. Instead, it spent its fortune on behalf of candidates or to oppose candidates – hundreds of thousands of dollars on political mailers and TV ads.

Shortly after the media got wind of this new PAC, and it was spooked into revealing its existence, Mazurek tried again:

WNY Progressive Caucus: Amended Filing

The documents in the PDF are out of order, and you have to scroll to the end. There, you’ll find that Towards the end of the PDF, you can see that in early September, Mazurek filed an amended CF-02 with the state board due to “wrong type of committee selected”. Instead of “PAC”, she changed it to “9 – other” for a “multi-candidate committee”.

The cover letter blamed the “complex outline” and lousy advice from the telephone “help desk”.

However, on September 11, 2013, the New York State Board of Elections returned this amended filing to Mazurek, noting an omission on its CF-02 and the complete absence of the required CF-03. Mazurek had filed as a multi-candidate committee without listing the candidates. She then went on to do so – but not until February 2014. 

It was witnessed by David Pfaff. (Pfaff mentioned here, here, and here)

Isn’t it convenient, this nunc pro tunc retroactive legality? If I rob a bank but return the money before I’m caught, all is forgiven, right? 

The AwfulPAC’s shiny new CF-03 – filed five full months after its period of activity – listed its intent as to various candidates as follows: 

County Sheriff (Primary & General)

Support: Dick Dobson

Oppose: Bert Dunn

County Legislature (Primary only)

Support: Barbara Miller-Williams, Rick Zydel, Wes Moore, Joyce Nixon,

Oppose: Wynnie Fisher, Lynn Dearmyer, Pat Burke, Betty Jean Grant, Tim Hogues

Town of Amherst (General only)

Support: Mark Manna

Not included in this compendium are two items:

1. Why would you support Dick Dobson in the general election and oppose only Bert Dunn? Why are you not also opposing Tim Howard? For a Democratic or “Progressive” PAC, wouldn’t/shouldn’t Howard be the primary target?

2. As predicted on day ten, note the absence of Niagara Falls Council candidate Sam Fruscione from this list. AwfulPAC admitted to Channel 2 that it produced the mailer for Fruscione, but he’s not listed as a candidate on its CF-03.

NB: On the Tenth Day of Preetsmas, I originally wrote that AwfulPAC hadn’t independently declared the expenses it made on Manna’s behalf. I was wrong; it had. I corrected it, and credit Ken Kruly for the catch. I should also note that Kruly also reported on Chris Grant’s federal disclosures for 2014 and 2015 are missing:

The United States House of Representatives Committee of Ethics requires House staff members who make approximately $120,000 or more per year (actually $120,749 in 2014) to file a Financial Disclosure statement by May 15 each year.

We’ll keep an eye out at Legistorm.

Channel 2’s Steve Brown is the only TV reporter chasing this story, and he had a very interesting piece Thursday night. He tried to talk to the owner of AwfulPAC vendor “Marketing Technologies”,

But owner Don Papaj had little to say when 2 On-Your-Side approached to get more information about the work WNY Progressive Caucus had done with them.

“I am very aware of the investigation,” said Papaj, “I have been physically asked not to talk.”

Asking potential witnesses not to speak publicly is a fairly standard request by FBI agents, and the agency is at work on this investigation.

Brown also contacted developer Nick Sinatra, who responded through a spokesman:

Brown adds,

So, it seems that Sinatra knows something about the investigation.

How many more days of Preetsmas are there, and what’s going on in Niagara Falls?

On the Tenth Day of Preetsmas

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What is the true meaning of Preetsmas?

The Story of Preetsmas has many purposes and goals, and among them is to establish that the campaign finance irregularities and accusations surrounding Steve Pigeon and his coterie are not novel nor rare, but chronic and longstanding. Let’s call it “Pigeoning”.

Pigeoning: pi·geon·ing \ˈpi-jən-iŋ\: (n) (1) A periodic use of New York’s byzantine election law to actively sabotage and undermine the Erie County Democratic Committee; (2) The action of accumulating and using money, power, and influence.

But really, the sabotage bit has been a secondary goal, if it’s been one at all. The singular unifying thread has been to enable Pigeon and his hangers-on to gain money, influence, and political power. This is accomplished by, among other things, exploiting the squishy edges of a state election law that’s not written for ease or transparency.

It’s accomplished through doling out patronage and buying people’s loyalty. It’s accomplished through a magnetic attraction to big money, and by our typically New Yorkish corrupt-but-legal minor fusion party horse-trading. Through his machinations, Pigeon has, at times, controlled the Independence fusion line and influenced the Conservative fusion line. We can probably read some volume of quids pro quo within the word “machinations” in the preceding sentence.

Even now, literally not one District Attorney in Western New York has bothered to investigate or prosecute any alleged illegalities, and even enforcement by the Board of Elections has been lukewarm, at best. How convenient it must be, then, for a PAC to simply file a piece of paper and retroactively alter its very nature and being into an unauthorized or authorized committee.

The Pigeoning

Back in 2004, Joe Golombek challenged Sam Hoyt for the Democratic nod for Assembly, and found the backing of a committee called “Renew NYS“, the address for which is the home of Pat Ruffino. (There exists a similarly named, earlier PAC called “Renew New York“.  Inactive now, its address is listed as 101 Reo Avenue in Cheektowaga, which we know from the Seventh and Ninth Days of Preetsmas, is the home of Pigeon bookkeeper Sandi Schmidt.) Renew NYS was started and funded by Pigeon and Joel Giambra.

In a complaint to the state Board of Elections, Hoyt alleged that Renew NYS was illegally coordinating with the Golombek campaign. In addition, Hoyt alleged that the PAC was acting as an unauthorized committee, spending money on behalf of the Golombek campaign and against Sam Hoyt’s, but was not legally constituted to do that. Renew NYS simply re-constituted itself as a multi-candidate committee and refunded whatever contributions had been above the limits that such an entity could accept, and avoided enforcement action or prosecution.

That’s not how it’s supposed to work, though.  The purpose of these election laws isn’t to enable committees to violate the law and then, when caught, re-declare themselves as something completely different, and have that apply retroactively. Candidates and the public deserve to have accurate information in real time – not months later, after the campaign is long over.

As far as evidence of coordination, take a look at the complaint brought against Pigeon’s and Golisano’s “Responsible New York” in 2008 and recall that Pigeon was a co-signatory for the Joe Mesi campaign while simultaneously running a pro-Mesi PAC, and that Jack O’Donnell was helping Responsible New York while simultaneously a co-signatory on the Barbra Kavanaugh campaign’s committee.

This is likely what Kristy Mazurek’s and Steve Pigeon’s WNY Progressive Caucus (“AwfulPAC”) tried to do when it filed its CF-03 in February 2014 to transform it – retroactively – into a multi-candidate committee participating and spending on candidates’ behalf in the 2013 primaries. We are awaiting final confirmation, but sources indicate that the AwfulPAC declared – nunc pro tunc – that it was an unauthorized committee for Dick Dobson in the primary and general elections, and in the primary for Joyce Wilson Nixon, Barbara Miller-Williams, Rick Zydel, and Wes Moore. They also claimed to be an unauthorized committee for Mark Manna for Amherst Town Board in 2013’s general election. Had AwfulPAC done that at its founding, it could have spent money on behalf of those candidates without coordination; however, as it was originally constituted it was legally only allowed to raise and donate money to campaigns. We’re meant to believe that it broke the law at the time, but a retroactive “oops” filing of a piece of paper retroactively rendered all its activities legal.

The Pigeoning: Niagara

Those of you who pay close attention may recall the AwfulPAC’s brief foray into the Niagara Falls City Council race, specifically working on the behalf of Sam Fruscione. Literature appeared that smeared and defamed Buffalo developer Mark Hamister, who is working on a subsidized hotel project in the Falls.

At the time, Channel 2 ran a story on it, and AwfulPAC admitted it was behind the lit.  Again – not something a PAC is allowed to do. Fruscione lost his election, and it was this piece of literature that led Governor Cuomo angrily to confront Pigeon over the smear against Hamister

We’re waiting to see whether Fruscione is among the candidates for whom AwfulPAC declared it was an independent expenditure committee. 

Mark Manna & AwfulPAC

Note that the AwfulPAC’s retroactive reconstitution as an unauthorized committee included the general election race for Mark Manna. Manna’s campaign’s 2013 10 day Post-Primary disclosure shows the AwfulPAC paying these amounts on his campaign’s  behalf, which Manna reports as “in-kind” donations.

(Click to enlarge) – that’s almost $5,000 in expenses that AwfulPAC supposedly paid for. CORRECTION: These expenditures appear as line-item expenses on AwfulPAC’s own disclosures here and here.  However, they are not disclosed as being expenses made on behalf of the Manna campaign.  Manna listing these as “in-kind” reveals that these expenses were authorized – not unauthorized – expenditures on his campaign’s behalf by an independent committee.

Three of the four AwfulPAC expenditures on Manna’s behalf relate to a Conservative fusion Party primary he had in September 2013. The maximum allowable contribution for that race, however, was $1,000. The fourth expenditure was for lawn signs, which conceivably could have been used for both the primary and the general elections and pro-rated over the two elections.

As for AwfulPAC, they’re in a bind – on the one hand swearing on their paperwork that the money was not authorized by Manna, but Manna swearing that the amounts were authorized contributions. That authorization is held and given by the candidate, not the committee.

This must be another one of those mysteriously accidental clerical errors on the part of the AwfulPAC. How does an independent expenditure committee, claiming no coordination with the candidate or his committee(s), pay for lawn signs? What does it do with them? If AwfulPAC bought the signs and gave them to the candidate or his committee, that’s “coordinating”.

One more point on coordination and AwfulPAC: in a Geoff Kelly article that ran in Artvoice at the time, Mazurek said,

Mazurek laughed off the controversy and called her detractors cry-babies, saying that she’d grown up around hardball politics. She also shrugged off responsibility for the content of the Hogues mailer, saying that the messages were crafted by the managers of the campaigns her PAC supported. “I don’t micromanage,” she said; she just writes the checks.

That bolded part sure sounds like “coordination” to me.

Chris Grant’s Disclosure

Little has been written about Chris Collins’ Chief of Staff, Chris Grant, whose home was also raided back in late May. We know of his involvement with Herd Solutions, but you’ll recall that we’ve written quite a bit about Aaron Pierce and his questionable tobacco money, and ties that Pierce had to Mickey Kearns. One of Pierce’s companies invested heavily in the AwfulPAC in 2013.

Here’s Grant’s disclosure. Note that he was paid to advise Aaron Pierce‘s campaign to become Seneca President, and also Kearns’ Assembly race.

Grant Disclosure

There’s also a sizeable income – over $150,000 – from his side-business at Herd Solutions while simultaneously employed by the County. Grant earned around $160,000 as a federal employee last year, yet Herd Solutions is still in existence and consulting on campaigns, as recently as November 2014. Working in the public sector is great, as Grant took a $9,000 payout of accrued vacation time from the County when he left.

Ganjapreneurs Fire Pigeon

We know that Pigeon’s PAPI Consulting, LLC lobbying firm lost its contract to lobby the state on behalf of the Seneca Nation. We know that Pigeon is renting his home at 1003 Admirals Walk from ganjapreneur Dan Humiston. We now also know that Pigeon’s PAPI Consulting, LLC lobbying firm was recently fired as the lobbyists for “Lewiston Greenhouse“, the marijuana growing company that Modern Disposal now operates as a tomato growing plant called H2Grow.

You can see the original contract between PAPI and Lewiston Greenhouse here.

Note: on Monday we revised our information about Matthew Connors, noting that it was his name that appeared on some mysterious money orders that ended up with the AwfulPAC, but that he had nothing to do with obtaining them. So, who used his name and possibly forged Connors’ signature on these money orders in order to hide the source of these funds? Why didn’t AwfulPAC file a proper disclosure?

Above all – wouldn’t you love to compare AwfulPAC’s bank records with its election law disclosures? I’ll bet they don’t remotely match up.

UB’s International Students

 

Via Wonkblog

Via Wonkblog

Yesterday saw something unprecedented happen. Carl Paladino apologized.

As originally reported in the Olean paper, Paladino appeared at something of a failure of a tea party rally over the weekend, and said hateful and ignorant things about Asian students at UB.

On Monday, Paladino said the point he wanted to make at the rally is that out-of-state students – whether foreign-born or not – are taking advantage of New York’s heavily subsidized university system at the cost of taxpayers. Since the state – via taxpayers – heavily contributes to its university system, the tuition for out-of-state residents is far lower than the actual cost to educate them, Paladino says.

“I don’t think that’s fair to taxpayers,” Paladino said Monday. “Even nonresident tuition is highly subsidized tuition. I was pointing out deeper problems that are not otherwise being expressed.”

UB boasts – BOASTS – about 5,000 international students. 99.2% of them attend UB on an F-1 student visa. While in-state students pay a tuition of just over $6,000 per year, international students pay close to $20,000 to attend UB.  Before obtaining an F-1 visa, the student must have already applied – and been accepted – to a school that is certified under the Student & Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP).  In order to obtain an F-1 visa, the applicant must prove that he does not intend to abandon his foreign residency. As such, it is impossible for the holder of an F-1 visa to claim domicile in New York State in order to reap the benefits of a subsidized in-state SUNY tuition.

Paladino said he does not take issue with the fact that foreign students attend UB, but thinks their education should not be subsidized by taxpayers. He said he selected Asians as an example of out-of-state students because it is easy to assume they are not from the area, an assumption for which he apologized.

“I apologize to all Asians for the coarseness of my remark and selecting them as my example,” he said. “That wasn’t the point I was trying to make.”

“Easy to assume they are not from the area” – here’s a case of an apology being pretty much as bad as the original insult. The International Institute’s Eva Hassett explains, “Immigrants, refugees, international students, foreign born professionals are are critical to the region’s economic growth. International students in particular are more likely than native born students to study in STEM fields, which relate highly to making the investments in the BNMC, Solar City, etc turn into jobs. Lots of cities get this. What they also get is that communities need to be ‘welcoming’ to the foreign born, or none of their other strategies work. Being inclusive and tolerant is a great base for an economic development strategy. Not to mention making it a nicer place to live.”

Paladino isn’t the disease, but merely a symptom of longstanding, ingrained xenophobia and ignorant animus plaguing western New York. Look no further than the absolutely disgusting, desperate clinging to a racist team name going on in Lancaster. Imagine people willing to turn their backs on the student who designed the new Lancaster mascot, or yelling “Heil Hitler” at the school superintendent. Lancaster isn’t the disease – it’s also a symptom.

We seem to have this mentality that it’s not our own fault that the region doesn’t – or we individually don’t – advance. Don’t blame the easily identifiable Asians or brown people or black people, western New York. “Stop being a bigot” may just be the key to regional and personal advancement.

On the Ninth Day of Preetsmas

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101 REO AVENUE

On the Seventh Day of Preetsmas, we reported that Pigeon had used an address of 101 Reo Street in Cheektowaga for some of his personal political contributions, as well as the address of record for at least one of his LLCs and two of his PACs. 101 Reo is the home of Sandi Schmidt, Pigeon’s long-time personal assistant and bookkeeper. Pigeon used Schmidt’s address to contribute $50,000 to Andrew Cuomo’s campaign in 2013. It’s believed that Schmidt helped Pigeon handle his money and pay his bills. She would be a critical person for investigators to question, as she would have knowledge about Pigeon’s activities since day one

ADMIRAL’S WALK

Who lives where? In some filings, Pigeon says he lives at 101 Reo. In some, he uses 703 or 704 Admiral’s Walk. In others, he uses 1003 Admiral’s Walk. That’s odd, right?

Steve Pigeon bought 703 Admiral’s Walk in 1997, and sold it in May 2009, but not before taking out a $58,000 mortgage through GSDP, LLC at 1900 Main Place, (but has also used 101 Reoremember this disclosure?) which was then the location of Pigeon’s law firm.

Pigeon bought 704 Admiral’s Walk on October 5, 2007, and still owns it.

1003 Admiral’s Walk is owned by Tanning Bed founder and current ganjapreneur Dan Humiston, who is applying to transform the Tyson chicken plant into a medical marijuana growing facility. Back in 2012, Humiston was running for Assembly (Pigeon donated), primarying David DiPietro on the Republican line and Christina Abt on the Independence fusion line. A lawsuit alleged that Humiston didn’t live in the district, and DiPietro’s campaign sent out literature alleging that Pigeon and Humiston were living together.

and the doorbell:

As it turns out, Humiston had claimed that his residence was out in the district, but that he also had a second home at 1003 Admiral’s Walk, which has recently been on the market. Or was it 703?

But more significantly, there are currently two condominium liens against 1003 Admiral’s Walk on file with the Erie County Clerk’s Office for unpaid common fees and assessments; one for $1,122 from October 2013, and one for $9,264 from August 2014. This is separate and distinct from the federal tax liens filed against Pigeon.

and

Why is Pigeon not living in 704, and instead occupying a 10th floor apartment owned by Dan Humiston?  We know this to be true because look at this image from the Buffalo News regarding the raid of Pigeon’s home on May 28th. See the floor number on the elevator?

Is Pigeon paying for someone to live there? Why aren’t the condo fees being paid? We know that Humiston owes the duty to pay the condo fees, but who is really responsible for the arrearage—the guy who just put down over $200,000 to grow medical marijuana or the guy who has over $200,000 in pending tax liens going back to 2008?

BARTOLOMEI

Another oft-used Pigeon address is that of lawyer John Bartolomei in Niagara Falls. Bartolomei’s associate Bill Berard represented Aaron Pierce’s AJ’s Wholesale in this lawsuit, and his office has been known to represent people in connection with inquiries from boards of election. For instance, Berard represented Kristy Mazurek when the Erie County Board of Elections subpoenaed the records of the WNY Progressive Caucus (AwfulPAC) and she resisted turning them over. That matter was litigated before Judge Troutman. Bartolomei is also representing some of the plaintiffs (including Mazurek) in the sexual harassment suit that led to Dennis Gabryszak’s resignation in disgrace, and paved the way for Mazurek’s brother to first defeat Camille Brandon in the Democratic Primary before losing in the general election to Conservative fusion Party member Angela Wozniak for A-143.

FAILED FOIL TO THE ERIE COUNTY BOE?

When the state Attorney General’s office took over the Erie County BOE’s investigation into AwfulPAC, it took every file and directed the board to cease all activities. That’s why this Buffalo News article about Pigeon attorney Dennis Vacco serving a FOIL on the Erie County BOE for AwfulPAC records is so funny. There likely are not any substantive files at the BOE.

PAPI CONSULTING’S LOBBYING

Way back on the first day of Preetsmas, we speculated as to why a bigshot Syracuse developer like Scott Congel would need to associate himself with every political malcontent in Western New York just to build a glorified shopping center in West Seneca. Our conclusion was that this may have been an effort to move the Seneca Creek Casino from Buffalo to a more prominent location off the Thruway in West Seneca. It bears mentioning, then, that the NYS Joint Commission on Public Ethics lists Steve Pigeon’s PAPI Consulting, LLC as an approved lobbyist for S&R Company of West Seneca, LLC., which is the owner of the Seneca Mall location of Congel’s project in The JCOPE record is here. Also note this:

and this:

Interesting, then, that the Senecas also retained PAPI Consulting, including Pigeon, Gary Parenti, and Grassroots’ Maurice Garner to lobby the state. The Senecas have since fired Pigeon’s group. Pigeon’s GSDP, LLC also engaged in lobbying, based on this document, but there appears to be nothing else on file with JCOPE right now.

That’s because GSDP was the subject of a JCOPE enforcement action, settling for a fine of $500.

GSDP Settlement by Alan Bedenko

STEVIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD

Back in January 2014, Bob McCarthy and Pigeon’s other stenographer, Frank Parlato, reported on how Buffalo’s own G. Steven helped sponsor a big-ticket Hollywood fundraiser for Governor Andrew Cuomo. Where’s the donation? Who made it? Pigeon is shown to have paid $50,000 in January 2013 and Landen paid $5,000 in December 2013. But where was this supposed $25,000 ticket for the LA fundraiser in January? It doesn’t show up under PAPI or GSDP or Landen, either. Very odd.

Paladino Opines About “Damn Asians”

 

Via Governor Cuomo on Flickr - anti-Asian bigotry everywhere

Via Governor Cuomo on Flickr – anti-Asian bigotry everywhere

At long last, you can put a fork in the Palinist wing of the WNY Tea Party.

But before we get to the reason why, it bears mentioning that, as much as we can ask where Frank Sedita is when it comes to Preetsmas:

Where’s Carl Paladino?  The raids on Pigeon, Casey, and Grant took place on May 28th, and this supposed hero of anti-corruption and good government has absolutely nothing to say about it.  He’s sent some stuff out. He likes that US Attorney Preet Bharara may be getting closer to Cuomo, but other than that he has zero to say about three local political movers being under scrutiny for possible corruption or illegality. Nada. Zilch.  Maybe it’s because Pigeon and Paladino are buddies. Carl has made peace with Byron Brown for business reasons, and Chris Grant is a political ally. So, corruption only matters to Carl Paladino when it’s someone who isn’t a friend or ally. But you have to figure Paladino is a guy who has a lot of very strong opinions, and he isn’t shy about expressing them. So, when the biggest political earthquake in years takes place, you’d sort of expect him to have a field day.  His silence reveals him to be a fake – a phony. The same goes for all of these so-called “tea party” types. They don’t really care about good government or corruption.  But that’s not why the tea party is toast. Paladino and his driver/companion Rus Thompson organized some sort of ammosexual rally in Olean this weekend. The Olean paper was there, and you won’t even believe this. First of all, Thompson and Paladino organized the rally to protest, in part, State Senator Cathy Young, who did something Carl didn’t like. But Young supporters showed up to Carl and Rus’ rally, and outnumbered the tea party by “maybe a dozen“.   

Paladino, who arrived about 45 minutes late for the scheduled noon rally, led the group in singing “God Bless America” before speaking for about 20 minutes. After starting by berating Republicans for speaking without cohesion or leadership, Paladino veered off into what some thought was “borderline” racism by referring to all the “non-Americans walking around” the University at Buffalo campus. Asking “why do we have this huge population of foreigners?” Paladino answered his own question. While they pay higher out-of-state tuition their first year, they soon declare themselves residents, and pay the lower tuition, Paladino stated. This is because “we have la-de-da legislators,” Republican-in-name-only GOP officials and liberals allied with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Paladino said. Later, when he spoke to reporters, Paladino made reference to those “damn Asians coming here to go to school” and keeping local students from educational opportunities.

Late for his own rally. 20 minute diatribe. Quick and pointless lurch to racist xenophobia. Not “borderline” racism, but straight-up anti-Asian animus. Seriously, was he drunk? Who talks this way? Who does it in public? In what way do these, “damn Asians coming here to go to school” appear on the tea party agenda? On Twitter,   

So, who thinks WBEN is going to publish this video? Me, neither.

But this is the elected member of a school board, going to some public demonstration and expressing anti-Asian bias apropos of nothing at all. Can this be it? Can this be the end of this noxious individual’s political career? How much more does there need to be? Are we done now? Can we stop pretending like this is a serious movement led by serious people?

Russ Thompson of Tea New York, warmed the crowd up for Paladino, outlining how six Upstate Republican senators including Young, “threw us under the bus” by naming Flanagan majority leader to succeed Skelos.

Thompson got into a verbal scuffle with Mark Williams, the county American Legion commander, who was carrying a sign supporting Young.

Thompson made reference to Williams circling the park with the Young sign, at which time Williams, the county’s public defender, walked toward the gazebo waving his sign and saying he was a veteran.

Thompson thanked Williams for his service and asked him to keep walking.

Seriously, these guys can’t even organize a demonstration without being outnumbered by supporters of the person they came to denigrate. They can’t hold an anti-Skelos rally without going after Asian students at UB?!

At long last, can we be done with these clowns?

On the Eighth Day of Preetsmas

8preet

 

The Money Orders

An article appeared in the Buffalo News on Saturday that confirmed rumors that had been swirling throughout town almost all last week.

On 8/19/13, the WNY Progressive Caucus—the “AwfulPAC” that is at the center of the current law enforcement investigation—reported receiving $4,000 from Frank Max’s Progressive Democrats of WNY. AwfulPAC reported that $4,000 as one lump sum, but for some reason Max’s group didn’t. AwfulPAC also says that it received money long before Max’s group says it contributed it, which is truly magical and prescient. Or just a bunch of BS.

The News wrote:

Now, questions center on the three postal money orders purchased on Aug. 14, 2013 and made payable to the WNY Progressive Caucus, according to the sources.

A name appears on the postal orders as the purchaser. But nobody familiar with the case can say if the person named on the money orders actually purchased them.

Kristy L. Mazurek, treasurer of the WNY Progressive Caucus, endorsed the postal orders and deposited them, the sources said. Yet state Board of Elections campaign finance records indicate no corresponding contribution.

The Postal Service maintains no requirement to show identification when purchasing or sending postal money orders under $3,000, according to spokeswoman Karen L. Mazurkiewicz.

(UPDATED: see editor’s note at bottom.) The person whose name appears on the money orders is Matthew Connors, the son of prominent attorney Terry Connors. Sources close to the investigation confirm this information, though other sources indicate that Matt Connors is a victim of fraud: We are told that law enforcement is satisfied that Matt Connors did not put his name on these money orders.

In any case, the money orders represent the missing $2,500, which was lumped into the $1,500 from the Progressive Democrats to show a $4,000 August 2013 deposit.

Matt Connors works for developer Nick Sinatra a Republican fundraiser with ties to Pigeon. It also bears mentioning that, although it’s not publicized on Sinatra’s website, Erie County Legislator Peter Savage III also works for Sinatra and was until recently the treasurer of the Committee for Change PAC, which Steve Casey now controls and generously contributed to Conservative Party candidate Joe Lorigo. Savage used to work for Casey and Mayor Byron Brown and it goes without saying that he has a relationship with Pigeon.

So many entities, so little time

In August 2013, Kennedy for Senate spent $39,500 for “consulting” with Niagara Frontier Business Solutions, which is a front entity for Jack O’Donnell. He is its registered agent, and the corporate address is his house. This underscores the fact that Kennedy for Senate participated in the primary election that year, triggering the obligation to file pre-primary and post-primary reports under Election Law 14-102.

The AwfulPAC shows an inexplicable liability owed to Marketing Tech—the company whose representative identified Steve Casey as its contact for all of AwfulPAC’s literature—which dates to May 9, 2013. That’s odd, since Mazurek and Pigeon claimed that the entity didn’t exist until August. Had it existed in May 2013, it would have been required to file a July periodical report to the state Board of Elections, and a 32-day pre-primary report. It did neither.

Mazurek’s Status

Mazurek is reportedly singing like a canary, having been questioned by federal and state officials. She and her attorney are now pretending that Mazurek had nothing to do with anything having to do with AwfulPAC. Right. Why, then, in September 2013 would she say she “started” the AwfulPAC?!

She started the PAC. She said so, and it was in all-caps, so you know it’s true.

AwfulPAC Isn’t / Wasn’t a PAC

Finally, the AwfulPAC and all of these other “PACs” aren’t really PACs, because no such thing exists under New York State election law. There are really only two recognized legal categories: party committee and political committee. Under the category of political committee, a PAC is simply a political committee that only donates money to other committees—either to a party committee or to individual candidate committees.  It does not participate in the campaign and does not buy goods or services on behalf of such a committee/candidate.  It is also bound by the campaign finance contribution limits as provided for in election law 14-114.

Contributions to such a (PAC) committee aren’t limited, but the PAC itself is bound by the same maximum contribution limits an individual. A PAC merely has to file a statement of its treasurer, depository, etc.; it doesn’t need to file the CF-03, where a political committee must swear under oath whether it is authorized to support certain candidates and then list them, and to state under oath the candidates whom it is supporting,but is not authorized by the candidate(s) to support.

For a standard political committee, whether it is authorized or unauthorized, the key is that the CF-03 makes them declare their hand, under oath, as to which candidate(s) they are authorized to support and which one(s) they are supporting without authorization—that is, as an “independent expenditure” committee (IE). Under election law 14-100 (9), such expenditures are exempted from the statutory definition of “contribution”—and thus not subject to the limits imposed by Article 14. Pigeon has always declared that his committees are PACs, as they clearly announced and called themselves initially, when they were discovered. And while they even filed their CF-02 late, they never filed (at least initially anyway) a CF-03—whereby they would have had to state who they were supporting and whether they were authorized or not authorized.  They simply hid behind the CF-02 PAC filing throughout August and to the date of the primary.

Mazurek then re-filed her CF-02 stating hers was a regular political committee (not a PAC) and claiming to be an IE.  Unbelievably, it was now dated onpPrimary day and received the next day by the state Board of Elections—after all the damage was done and no publicity could be had about the committee’s mission and who the candidates are that it was supporting.

Had its CF statements also been filed before the primary, the media, the public, and the opposition could have publicized those behind the committee. But it was all kept in the dark until the voters had been duped.

It gets worse. Though prodded by the state board of elections, Mazurek still never filed the CF-03 statement required for an unauthorized committee and naming the candidates that the committee was supporting until long after the board’s investigation was begun—sometime in early 2014. Most likely, Pigeon instructed Mazurek to just file as a PAC, and they figured they could skate past the primary. They succeeded in doing just that.

Now, however, if Mazurek rolls on Pigeon and tells this story, there is a possible conspiracy charge for filing a false instrument—possibly more—even before you get to coordination. Since Mazurek didn’t change the filing to an IE committee until the date of the primary election, all the time they were raising and spending money in August/September 2013 before the primary, they were filed as a political committee with no CF-03.  Can they file later and claim to be in compliance and legally—retroactively—an IE committee? Or maybe they are stuck being a PAC, thus having violated the campaign contribution limits on their face—with no recourse to claiming to be an IE, because they hadn’t yet filed for it properly. To allow them to retroactively gain status after the war is over would be a total perversion of the law.

We have to assume that prosecutors know about all of this, and the question is whether a jury would find the requisite intent with respect to the allegedly fraudulent filings, missing donors, hiding the names of the true donors, and, of course, the issue of coordination. That’s before we get to kickbacks and money-laundering.


EDITOR’S NOTE: At 3pm, June 8, the paragraph noted above was amended to reflect information from new sources, confirmed by original sources, suggesting that Matt Connors was not the source of the donations or the money orders in question.

On the Seventh Day of Preetsmas

preetclaus

 

In case you missed them, here are the Preetsmas posts so far:

It’s more likely than not that the investigation into the Western New York Progressive Caucus – or “AwfulPAC” has spread into other areas, and the feds are following their own investigation and not just helping out state and local investigators.

‘Sup Frank Max?

New York’s election law is an overcomplicated morass designed to guarantee full employment for anyone with the herculean patience to figure it out. For instance, the maximum allowable campaign contribution in the 2013 Democratic primary election must be calculated based on the number of Democrats enrolled in the district under NYS Election Law 14-114(1)(b).  When calculated, the Board of Election posts it to its website. For instance, the maximum anyone could contribute to the (AwfulPAC-backed) Rick Zydel and Wes Moore 2013 Democratic primary election campaigns was somewhere around $1,100 – 1,200, for a single contributor.

Back during the 2013 primary season, Cheektowaga’s Frank Max was closely aligned with AwfulPAC – in fact, it was commonly referred to at the time as his & Mazurek’s. The name of his longstanding operation is the “Progressive Democrats of WNY” (all [sic]). If you take a look at that group, it gave the following to Zydel’s campaign:

  • 5/9/13     $2,500
  • 6/10/13   $150
  • 6/11/13   $600

Total: $3,250:  Nearly triple the maximum allowed.

There’s even $100 to the “Real Conservatives”, which we discussed briefly here. You always expect a “progressive” group to contribute to the “Real Conservatives” and The “Hamburg Conservative Club

In the same document, three checks to the Wes Moore campaign from Max’s group are revealed:

  • 5/9/13    $2,500
  • 6/10/13  $150
  • 6/13/13  $350

Total: $3,000.  Over double the maximum allowed.

Frank Max should know better than that. He was until recently town chair of the Cheektowaga Committee, hoped to be the county chair – can he claim that his personal political organization didn’t knowingly and willfully violate the law?  Assuming the authorities have flagged this, it could be a useful way to encourage him to provide information on the entire AwfulPAC scheme.

Max is the treasurer for the Progressive Dems. Kristy Mazurek is (or was – the address is likely out-of-date) the treasurer for “Friends of Frank Max”.  It’s believed that Max was deeply involved with the goings on of AwfulPAC in 2013, but we haven’t heard much from Frank since the heat was turned up on the investigation.

Some History

Way back in 2009, Tom Golisano and Steve Pigeon’s absurdly named “Responsible New York (RNY)” PAC or “independent expenditure” committee had some interesting filings.

Note in its 2009 filings – the year after it attempted to bring democracy back to the NYS Legislature – on May 15, 2009, it received back as a repayment a “refunded expenditure” the sum of $120,000.  Such “expenditure” was supposedly made in August, 2008 by RNY.  And who “refunded” that $120,000 – why some entity known as “GSDP, LLC”.  A review of the Department of State website reveals that this LLC, which features Pigeon’s initials, has a registered address at Pigeon’s former law firm, Underberg & Kessler.

Good for GSDP to refund that huge sum of money to Responsible NY. There’s a problem, though – no such expenditure exists; Responsible NY never gave any money to GSDP. Maybe more interesting would be for the Tax Man to look at how GSDP “earned” that $120,000 (which is taxable) but then tried to write off a “refund” of an obligation that wasn’t GSDP’s. You can’t pay someone else’s debt and then deduct it as a business expense.

Oddly enough, the Board of Elections’ wonky website shows only two expenditures made to GSDP – from the Niagara County Republican Committee. It bears mentioning that the Cheektowaga address that GSDP lists in those disclosures matches that of “Citizens for Fiscal Integrity“, which gave money to Joel Giambra and Responsible New York. It also contributed to “People for Accountable Government“, whose treasurer appears to have been Pigeon associate David Pfaff. That group received $1000 from GSDP. In 2007, it reported $100 from Steve Pigeon and $2000 from Joel Giambra’s committee. In 2008, Pigeon supposedly contributed $20,000. That was the year of the Mesi campaign. CItizens for Fiscal Integrity was formed in 2005, and took in $13,500 from GSDP that year. It also took in $8000 from Roger Stone and his wife. It’s not clear from the disclosures whom that group was intended to help or harm.

What was this refund to Golisano’s committee all about? Golisano was drawing out a lot of the money by repaying his initial loan, so it could have been a refund not to GSDP but to Golisano himself, possibly in connection with the Joe Mesi race.

David Pfaff

Pfaff is a longtime Pigeon associate, and is currently employed in the office of State Senator Marc Panepinto. In 2013, Pfaff was living off the “consulting fees” of $800/bi-weekly, being paid by Frank Max’s “Progressive” Democrats while he was working for the Dick Dobson for Sheriff campaign and AwfulPAC – all at one time. In his 2015 bankruptcy filing, Pfaff claims not to have earned enough money to file tax returns for 2013 and 2014. But he had the cash to contribute $25 to Dobson?

Sources report that Pfaff petitioned in 2013 for candidates supported by the AwfulPAC, and assisted Dobson in Board of Elections proceedings.

Wes Moore

Moore was the beneficiary of thousands of dollars’ worth of expenditures by AwfulPAC against his primary opponent Wynnie Fisher, and on his behalf. It bears repeating that the smear campaign that Moore helped engineer with Kristy Mazurek against Fisher on the eve of the November election was thanks to information sent to Moore c/o Mazurek’s address, despite the fact that his Treasurer was shown at the BOE as being first in Buffalo and later in Clarence. The stench of illegal coordination is overpowering.

It, therefore, bears mentioning that Moore is reported to have contributed $300 on August 21, 2013 to the AwfulPAC making supposedly “independent” expenditures on his behalf. That is bizarre; practically unprecedented for a candidate who is the beneficiary of an independent expenditure to actually contribute to that very committee.  Was there a fundraiser for AwfulPAC that he attended? Did he speak with anyone there?

Amendments and Oddities

It appears as if AwfulPAC has amended its filings to eliminate what had originally been reported as a $25,000 fee to Landen, LLC – you can see it referenced in former Assistant District Attorney Mark Sacha’s complaint to the Moreland Commission. It appears here as an outstanding loan, but the original “loan” itself is nowhere to be found. Note that Landen, LLC is now listed at the same 101 Reo Ave address as GDSP and “Citizens for Fiscal Integrity”, as shown above.

Pigeon also used that Reo Ave address for many of his own contributions. For instance,

If you look at this article I wrote at the time, I reported that Landen had given Dick Dobson $200, but now the link shows an additional $400. I don’t know that financial disclosures were allowed to be so … fluid. Likewise, in Dobson’s first post-primary report, “Democratic Action” donated $9,000. That’s fine – that’s what a PAC is legally empowered to do. Except Democratic Action hadn’t filed a single disclosure during that cycle, its last being a “no activity” report in July 2013. Its last reported fund balance? $2,400. If you’re going to BS people, at least do so credibly.

A.J. Pierce Again

Aaron Pierce filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court against three trucking companies that supposedly lost or converted $785,000 of untaxed cigarettes that Pierce was trying to transport from WNY to another Native American on Long Island. Pierce accused the trucking companies of stealing the cigarettes, and Justice Marshall dismissed the complaint because you can’t enforce an illegal contract.

Order Dismissing Complaint


It looks like Mr. Pierce and AJ’s Wholesale, LLC is out $785,000, and if the state Department of Taxation requires that state taxes be paid and stamps affixed to the cigarettes when they were placed on trucks for shipment through New York State to a different Nation, then he may also owe state taxes. Remember that one of Pierce’s companies was already in big trouble, with a big civil forfeiture for what amounts to a conviction for bootlegging cigarettes.  Did he really wire that $20,000 to Buying Time, as the AwfulPAC claims?

AwfulPAC’s Money

Here’s a handy chart of all the money that went into and came out of the WNYPC “AwfulPAC”. There is the aforementioned “loan” of $25,000 from Landen, LLC which is completely unaccounted-for. Also not the discrepancies in terms of the dates of money coming into AwfulPAC from Frank Max and Tim Kennedy. How was AwfulPAC able to account for $4000 in donations from the Progressive Democrats that didn’t come in until days – or weeks – later? Friends of Frank Max supposedly gave $1750 on 9/3/13, but it only had $100 on hand in the most recent previous filing, and there appears to be no entry for that sort of outflow.

WNYPC Money

As for Tim Kennedy, he contributed $85,000 to AwfulPAC and $10,000 to Democratic Action – which promptly turned around and donated it back to the favored candidates of the AwfulPAC – Dobson, Miller-Williams.  So Kennedy gave a total of $95,000 to the two committees, which he had to know were backing candidates in the September 2013 Democratic primary election. Under Election Law 14-102 (1), Kennedy for Senate (as did Democratic Action) “participated” in the primary election and had a duty to file pre-primary and post-primary campaign finance reports with the New York State Board of Elections.  However, neither did.

Under no circumstances is it legal or proper for a campaign or committee to participate in a primary election,  but make people wait until the following January to find out what they did. This may be a crime pursuant to Election law 14-126 (3). 

As to Democratic Action, all of a sudden in mid-2013, it received $10,000 from Kennedy and another $2,000 from Nancy Krzyzanowski, an employee of Collucci & Gallagher. That seems like an odd donation from to an obscure and largely inactive PAC. Then again, she’s also given $500 to Chris Collins, $1000 over time to the Tonawanda Democratic Committee, and – oddly enough – $3000 to the New York State Republican Committee in 2004

More to come as the Preetsmas gifts get hung on the chimney with care.

On the Sixth Day of Preetsmas

 

Courtesy Chris Van Patten

Courtesy Chris Van Patten

As a consumer of information, you should be appalled.

As recently as May 24th, the Buffalo News’ political columnist, Bob McCarthy, dutifully did Steve Pigeon’s bidding, producing an opinion piece that amounted to faithful stenography of a longtime source’s spin. In this case, it was Pigeon spinning about why he had ended what had until recently been a likely mutually beneficial relationship with a Rochester-based law firm. Pigeon told McCarthy it had nothing to do with any investigation – but the state and federal raids came literally four days later.

At the conclusion of the piece, McCarthy took a story that should have been about Erie County Democratic Committee chairman Jeremy Zellner being one of only about 250 party leaders nationwide to meet with Hillary Clinton at her New York City HQ, but instead became one that disrespected Zellner as just another Lenihan henchman.

But it’s worse than that. A simple search of the Buffalo News’ website reveals ample droppings of Pigeon-sourced or Pigeon-puffing material. Some of it was so empty – consider Pigeon releasing to the press (PoliticsNY.net also had it) that new Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie had joined some local pols – including a couple who are now under investigation – at Pigeon’s house to watch a boxing match. Releasing it is one thing – McCarthy including it in his Sunday column is straight-up TMZ garbage.

Here, McCarthy gives equal time to the investigation into the WNY Progressive Caucus and a totally bogus claim that former Board of Elections Commissioner Dennis Ward ripped up someone’s nominating petitions in a fury. One resulted in a federal and state probe; the other one doesn’t exist.  Or how about quoting Pigeon in connection with a completely unrelated obituary note, thusly:

Few travelers along the campaign trail have made more friends than Tom Fricano, the former UAW leader and 1996 congressional candidate who died Feb. 14. Former Erie County Democratic Chairman Steve Pigeon, a longtime associate, recalled him like this: “He was a gentle person who was a true believer and did not demonize his enemies.”

Oh, how heartfelt, coming from WNY’s king ratfckr.

Here, we have McCarthy treating Zellner like a guy who somehow didn’t deserve the 69% of votes cast for his re-election as party chair. Note the headline and theme – it’s not about Zellner’s victory, it’s about Zellner’s foes and what they might do. Say what you want, but for a guy who the Mayor, the Governor, labor, and a bunch of Pigeonista malcontents apparently wanted out of the party chairmanship, Zellner crushed it.

Here, we find out that Pigeon opposed cross-endorsements by Zellner of Republican judges.

Pigeon will run his own slate of judicial nominating delegates – and will appeal for support from the seven smaller counties of the Eighth Judicial District.

A close political adviser to the governor, Pigeon’s efforts will encourage as strong a Democratic turnout as possible for Cuomo and his effort to sweep the western counties he lost to Republican Carl Paladino in 2010.

That’s nice. Pigeon’s slate failed miserably, and what does Pigeon’s efforts as a “close political adviser to the governor” – which is likely taken verbatim from Pigeon’s gob – have to do with anything? Where is the article about how Pigeon and his crowd backed Republican Deana Tripi over Democrats Carney and Crapsi in 2013? Where is the article about how Maurice Garner and Mike Darby were put in charge of the Pigeon effort to promote Tripi and defeat the Democratic slate? I hear Grassroots has since been embarrassed by its support of Tripi, and am waiting for confirmation of a story about something that happened in connection with a protest over the Eric Garner case. Where is the article about how this year, Pigeon’s people are helping Republican family court candidate Brenda Freedman?

In addition to this, we have this new phenomenon of candidates or political figures attempting to prove something to journalists by showing them documents purporting to be tax records. In 2015 it was “political heavyweight” Steve Pigeon showing something to Bob McCarthy, and in 2012, it was Chris Collins (R-Clarence) showing a portion of the records from three tax years to Jerry Zremski.

With respect to Pigeon, McCarthy wrote,

Pigeon opened his tax returns from the past several years to inspection at The News’ request in an effort to quell speculation that his contributions to the Progressive Caucus stemmed from anywhere but his own bank account. His records over the past three years indicate a mid-six-figure income, which he says proves his ability to spare $100,000 even for a fund supporting relatively low-level candidates.

He can afford big donations to a political cause the same way others could contribute to a church, he said, especially because he has no wife or children to support, takes few vacations, has no real hobbies and lives a non-extravagant lifestyle.

“It sounds odd, but when you look at how I live and how much I make, it really isn’t,” he said.

The questions were mild and hardly probative. Mostly because, upon information and belief, Bob McCarthy isn’t a CPA or a tax attorney and is no more or less knowledgeable than you or me when it comes to assessing someone’s purported tax returns .

But Collins was even more blunt with Jerry Zremski,

“My federal return is probably 25 pages long,” Collins added. “It’s too much for the public to absorb.”

It is journalistic malpractice to report on the alleged tax returns that some politician shows to a reporter. Jerry Zremski, like Bob McCarthy, likely has no more or less experience vetting and examining someone’s tax records than any other layperson. For the Buffalo News to arrange for a political figure to simply bring in and show off some paper purporting to be tax returns, and not having a CPA or a tax attorney on hand to provide analysis and guidance is simply shocking. For the News to do this repeatedly and report on it as if they had actually obtained some sort of information is incredible. Anyone can waltz into anywhere with a 1040 and some schedules and make-believe that it represents a tax return. It’s no wonder that McCarthy’s reporting on Pigeon has turned someone sharper since he realized that his longtime source didn’t disclose almost $250,000 in federal tax liens, which would have certainly been relevant within the context of Pigeon’s ability or willingness to fund a PAC in 2013 to the tune of $100,000.

I’m sure the feds are pleased that Pigeon reportedly has $100,000 to blow on obscure legislative primaries, but can’t pay his own taxes.

And what of that – the 2011 arrearage is pretty small – $14,000, but Pigeon’s tax debt for 2013 – the year of the Western NY Progressive Caucus – is over $112,000. How did this come to the IRS’s attention? An audit? Was it part of the forensic accounting that’s likely taking place behind the scenes in conjunction with this investigation? Let’s say Pigeon was right about reporting about $400 – 500k in income on the returns he showed McCarthy – did he underpay? Under-report? His effective tax rate is probably between 10 – 20% after deductions, so that’s a significant under-payment, to say the least. Was there “income” that came to – or through – Pigeon’s accounts that he didn’t report as income, but should have been? Questions abound.

In the meantime, it’s come to light that in 2010 Pigeon and his associate and fellow lobbyist Jack O’Donnell bought the “Front Page” group of newspapers, including Lackawanna’s Front Page and the South Buffalo News from former Conservative Party guru William Delmont. The entity that bought the paper is “South Park Ave Properties, LLC“, which shares an address with the Arab-American Society of WNY in a UPS Store in Blasdell. Delmont has since died, but his estate has filed suit against O’Donnell, South Park Ave Properties, Pigeon, and Sadeq Ahmed for an alleged debt of over $125,000, plus accrued interest. It’s alleged that O’Donnell, Pigeon, and Ahmed were all members of the LLC, and each of them executed a document personally guaranteeing all payments under the promissory note, and by January 2014 were accused of being in default.

Demand Note by Alan Bedenko

The action was brought as a motion for summary judgment, and Pigeon opposed it, claiming that Delmont had vastly overstate the papers’ viability and circulation.

Affidavit of Steve Pigeon by Alan Bedenko

Supreme Court Justice Walker denied the motion for summary judgment, and the case is proceeding in the usual course. Perhaps significantly, Pigeon and O’Donnell are represented by Ed Betz, who was until recently an attorney for the Erie County Water Authority, and before that for the City of Buffalo. Philips Lytle is representing Mr. Ahmed.

The papers themselves feature columns by SCOPE’s Budd Schroeder and articles by Tony Farina. As of January 2014, the papers have a new publisher – Frank Parlato of the Niagara Falls Reporter. Parlato announced that his acquisition is, “in joint venture with its current owners”, O’Donnell and Pigeon.

Next, we are hearing rumors that prosecutors have granted immunity to someone who is – or was – reasonably high up in Byron Brown’s City Hall. If true, it further speaks to the growing breadth and depth of this investigation.

Finally, Channel 2 interviewed Tim Kennedy on Thursday, who denied having lawyered up in connection with the Preetsmas probe. But here’s the thing:

1. Tim Kennedy filed an order to show cause relating to primary day vote counting on September 9th, but the attorney wasn’t Terry Connors – it was the aforementioned Ed Betz, who is also representing Pigeon and O’Donnell.

2. Although Kennedy claims that no one has spoken with him about the WNY Progressive Caucus or any investigation surrounding it, that defies credulity.  We already know that investigators interviewed everyone who gave or received any money from that PAC, and that its victims – like Wynnie Fisher and Lynn Dearmyer – were also questioned. We also know that Kennedy gave $85,000 to that PAC, so he had to have been paid a visit by state investigators.

3. Kennedy’s campaign finance disclosures show over $60,000 paid to Terry Connors’ law firm between August and November 2014. It wasn’t for election law stuff, since Betz was handling that. So, why so much and why then? What for? $60,000 is 200 hours’ worth of work at $300/hr, and that’s pretty much what it would cost to get a case tried. By contrast, in 2012 when Kennedy was in the fight of his political life against a Betty Jean Grant write-in insurgency, Kennedy paid Connors just $25,000.

Speaking of Terry Connors, his law partner’s bid to become a federal judge is moving right along. The Senate Judiciary Committee just this week approved Lawrence Vilardo’s nomination to be the newest federal judge in WNY. Yet, consider,

There is concern in the local legal community, however, over the prospects for approval of Denise E. O’Donnell, Schumer’s recommendation for Buffalo’s other vacant district judgeship. Even though Schumer submitted O’Donnell’s name to Obama in June of last year, seven weeks before he recommended Vilardo, the White House has not yet nominated her.

Why do you think that the White House hasn’t nominated Denise O’Donnell – Jack O’Donnell’s mother – to the federal bench, despite Chuck Schumer’s recommendation? I don’t know, either. Seems very odd.

A Preetsmas Story

BAK

It bears repeating that the WNY Progressive Caucus was merely the latest iteration of a common Steve Pigeon modus operandi. He had been Pigeoning Democratic candidates for years while manipulating or cutting deals with whomever was convenient. Part of my antipathy for electoral fusion stems from Pigeon’s deft manipulation and marshalling of minor party lines.  He has conspired with Ralph Lorigo to steer the Conservative fusion Party line to his various candidates, and enjoys a close relationship with Tom Golisano, the founder of New York’s especially corrupt Independence fusion Party.

That’s why, for instance, Pigeon associate David Pfaff shows up as a vendor for the “Real Conservatives” PAC, which is controlled by Lorigo and based out of a funeral home in Hamburg which has contributed to Lorigo’s committee and also to Mickey Kearns.  That’s why a flush pro-Byron Brown PAC controlled by Steve Casey and based out of Casey’s home contributed to only one candidate – Conservative fusion Party candidate Joe Lorigo – in 2014 and 2013. So query why it took in $6,000 from Byron Brown’s campaign fund in the 11-day pre-General 2013 and another $6,000 from Brown in October 2013, while it only supported one Conservative fusion Party candidate.

None of this was new in 2013, but there was one major difference that tripped up Pigeon’s usual M.O. It was late August and early September that anonynous, no-attribution literature blasting then-incumbent county legislators Betty Jean Grant and Tim Hogues hit mailboxes throughout Buffalo. The mailers risibly accused Grant and Hogues of being right-wing Republicans, and praised their challengers, Joyce Wilson Nixon and Barbara Miller-Williams. I wrote at the time, “so long as people aligned with the breakaway Steve Pigeon faction of disgruntled nominal Democrats exist, there will be nonsense. It is ever thus.”

Under New York’s weak and usually unenforced election law, there is no requirement that the groups sending these sorts of mailers out reveal their identity or funding. “Paid for by” isn’t a requirement, and it protects shenanigans, instead of informing the voting public.

Generally, a PAC like the “WNY Progressive Caucus” would need to disclose to the Board of Elections where its money was coming from. But when these mailers hit in late August 2013, it hadn’t yet filed anything. The reason we found out about it was a FOIL request:

[Betty Jean] Grant on Friday charged that a rival wing of the local Democratic party is behind the anonymous ads. A request made under the Freedom of Information Act to the Postal Service has identified the permit holder on the mailings as the Western New York Progressive Caucus, headquartered on Doris Avenue in Lancaster.

That was Kristy Mazurek’s home, and she was listed as the group’s treasurer. Mazurek, at the time, had been a co-host of WGRZ’s “2Sides”, had helped direct the campaign of failed Comptroller candidate David Shenk, and then turned against Jeremy Zellner’s Democratic Committee and began running the campaigns of Pigeon-backed rogue Democrats Wes Moore and Rick Zydel in 2013. In August 2013, I called them the “emoDems”,

It should be noted that WGRZ 2Sides co-host Kristy Mazurek is [Wes] Moore’s and [Rick] Zydel’s campaign manager. Query why [her former co-host Stefan] Mychajliw would have felt the need to abandon the show when he ran for public office, yet the Democrat on the show feels no similar ethical obligation to do so, going so far as to attempt to ridicule an opponent on Facebook who wasn’t interested in going on the show.

Mazurek had taken to Facebook to ridicule Moore’s opponent Wynnie Fisher for refusing to appear on 2Sides. Yet why on Earth would a candidate appear on a show to be interrogated by her opponent’s campaign manager? It’s an insane proposition. Furthermore, Mazurek did leave 2Sides just days later. (There’s David Pfaff again, BTW):

And so, Mazurek Palinistically took to Facebook to issue a non-denial denial about the WNY Progressive Caucus’ literature:

Translation: After Shenk lost, Zellner didn’t hire/get me hired for something-or-other, and so I’m going to align myself with the people who are working to undermine and unseat him. Note that Mazurek doesn’t deny that she or her PAC sent out the anti-Hogues and anti-Grant mailings. She simply says the complaints “don’t have merit”. So, I replied:

Reply, (right under one from Erick Mullen, who did all of Jack Davis’ ads that relentlessly went after endorsed Democrat Jon Powers in ’08):

I have no idea what that means. So,

There was no reply, natch; I don’t think Ms. Mazurek knows what “meritless” means. Ditto her apparently erstwhile ally Pigeon, who said that the charges against him related to Mazurek’s PAC were “frivolous“.

These types of anonymous mailers come out all the time, and when anonymous, you can bet that the people behind it want to keep you in the dark. You should be insulted by them – they figure you’re an idiot; an ignoramus. Yet there’s no law that says they have to disclose who they are. So, if you’re outraged when your candidate gets anonymously and unfairly slammed by anonyms, you’re going to have to lobby Albany to demand that the Election Law be amended to (a) require that all campaign advertisements and literature clearly disclose who paid for them; and (b) institute a hefty penalty for any violations – penalties that are confiscatory deterrents.

Nasty people with unclean hands legally get to make electoral politics dirtier than it has to be. If Mazurek and the people behind the group for which she is treasurer think that Tim Hogues is a closet Clarence Republican and that Barbara Miller-Williams is the reincarnation of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then they should disclose who they are.

The disgruntled nominal Democrats in league with Steve Pigeon might consider this, for instance: instead of working with Republicans and the fusion parties actively to undermine endorsed Democrats, why not convince the various and sundry committee members why they should vote for Frank Max or Mark Manna over Jeremy Zellner for party chair next time around? If you’re in league with the Conservative Party, why even pretend to be a Democrat?

But this time – in 2013 – the Pigeoning was discovered far earlier than Pigeon and Mazurek had expected, on August 30th. Because they were outed via FOIL request, they were forced to file disclosures just 11 days before the primary, and the disclosure was, at best, packed with fiction. Think about it – they clearly didn’t want to disclose who they were on the reams of literature they produced, and so long as people didn’t know who was behind it, they could defame opponents with impunity. This time, however, they were outed and came under a media microscope. Hogues and Grant filed complaints with the Board of Election, bolstered by former Assistant District Attorney Mark Sacha, and that complaint was referred to the state, which then referred it to state investigators, and it came before the Moreland Commission and into the hands of Preet Bharara.

And that’s the story of Preetsmas.

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