Thursday, June 23, 2011

Citytime scandal just keeps getting worse

From CBS New York:

Authorities now estimate more than $600 million that New York City paid for the “CityTime“‘ automated payroll project was directly or indirectly tainted.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara says it is truly jaw dropping. Prosecutors had previously put the figure at about $85 million.

“Unfortunately, in just a few months since the first announcement of arrests, we have developed evidence that the corruption on CityTime was epic in duration, magnitude and scope,” Bharara said on Monday.

The new estimate came as federal prosecutors and the New York City Department of Investigation announced more charges in the case.

The indictment names a Wayne, N.J.-based subcontractor, TechnoDyne LLC, and its owners. Prosecutors say they believe Padma and Reddy Allen have fled to their native India. Efforts to reach them for comment through online messages were unsuccessful.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes and the Mayor wants to take away pensions and fire people making between 40 and 80,000 a year max in NYC. Makes soo much sense to me. What about the vending machine contracts, when are they going to investigate that? and ARISS? How much money was wasted on that? let alone all the other contractors raking in millions.

Mayor Mike said...

You'll never catch me, coppers.

Nyahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

So long, suckers!

Claire Shillman said...

And they'll NEVER investigate ME!


Hahahahahahahahahahaha!

Illegal lobbying? I don't think so!

Anonymous said...

close to $200 per NYC tax payer. fantastic.

Anonymous said...

Another well run government project.

Have to say in the civilian software sector, we'd have noticed all these $$s going missing a lot sooner. There seems to be a lack of project management on the part of government.

If they can't run the project, perhaps they should get out of the business.

Mayor Mike said...

But you elected me THREE times!!!

Schmucks!

nyc sleuth said...

AND JON LIU LANDS ANOTHER UPPERCUT TO BLOOMBERGS LEGACY!! WOW! BLOOMY MAYBE OUT FOR THE COUNT THIS TIME.

Sure makes his future endorsement of Christine Quinn for mayor laughable.

LIU FOR MAYOR 2013

Mike Bloomturd said...

Anyone got change for a million?

Anonymous said...

IMPEACH BLOOMTARD!

Oh wait. I'm preaching to the choir...

Anonymous said...

Just good All-American Capitalists engaging in Revenue Optimization.

Waddya want..More regulation?

Anonymous said...

Tip of the iceberg, tip of the ice(bloom)berg.There' more. O there is more.

Anonymous said...

"Waddya want..More regulation?"

Doubt this is even a regulatory issue. It's a management issue. And whoever managed this one was an idiot. It probably was doomed from the beginning. If a contract is written correctly you have milestones that the vendor meets which result in payment.

Have been involved in some very large software projects and I can't imagine a $600 million budget. I've seen entire companies with 50K employees get data collection and reporting systems installed for just a few million. 600 million is absurd. Whoever signed off on this was a maroon.

Mayor Mike said...

Whoever signed off on this was a maroon.

---------------------------------------------

My favorite color!!!

Cav said...

Eerily remeniscent of the Tweed Courthouse scandal.
You can be sure that certain politicians, the people who wrote the contracts and oversaw the work were very well taken care of to look the other way.

Anonymous said...

Liu for mayor?

You gotta be kidding!

His father is a convicted criminal....indicted for bank fraud....the Great Eastern Bank job!

Bad enough Tommy Huang's cousin is NYC Comptroller.

Anonymous said...

While it is relevant that John Liu's father's corruption conviction involved his bank and the bank and many of its officers invested heavily (with tainted money) in John's very well-funded campaign (making it difficult for the other local candidates to even begin to compete against him, no matter how stellar their credentials) I don't think the fact that the mere fact that a parent is a felon should negate a political career for an innocent and competent child (I am not speaking about John's qualifications, just generally).

Wasn't Giuliani's father a convicted felon? Love him or loathe him, I don't think most people let that fact alter their opinion of Rudy . . . .

Plus, even if John is going after Bloomberg for purely self-serving, ambitiously political reasons, since almost everyone is afraid to cross Bloomberg and his huge bankroll, that is a win for NY'ers if it uncovers widespread corruption.

It doesn't mean you have to vote for him.

Anonymous said...

The daily News broke the story back in 2009. At that time Comptroller Thompson had a responsibilty and civic duty to audit those contracts. Big failure on his part. 80 mil contract that grew to 600 million ?
Both Bloomturd and Thompson should be investigated.
Remember "do nothing" Thompson when he runs for Mayor.