Thursday, November 17, 2011

Funny business at Vito's not-for-profit

From the Daily News:

The report by the city Department of Investigation details several alleged misdeeds by Christiana Fisher, Lopez’s campaign treasurer and director of the non-profit he founded, the Ridgewood-Bushwick Senior Citizens Center.

The DOI report also says Fisher approved raises for Angela Battaglia (pictured at right), a Ridgewood exec who’s also Lopez’s girlfriend and a sitting member of the City Planning Commission. Battaglia’s salary jumped 73% in one year to $343,000 with Fisher’s approval.

The dubious salary hikes and other corruption allegations at Ridgewood Bushwick are the focus of ongoing probes by several law enforcement agencies, including federal prosecutors in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The new allegations surfaced in a Nov. 9 DOI report obtained by the Daily News under the Freedom of Information Law.

DOI released an earlier report alleging unaccounted-for spending at the non-profit Lopez founded years ago, which gets public funds to bring social services and housing to seniors across northern Brooklyn.

Lopez says he no longer has any connection to the group, although he’s steered hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to it through legislative “member items” for years. And as boss of the Brooklyn Democratic party, he holds sway over numerous politicians who have also steered public money to the charity.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

When will there be an investigation of the Stavisky clan's improprieties regarding the North Flushing Senior Center? Pretty soon we'll be observing the quarter of a century anniversary of this NY Times article.

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/29/nyregion/
center-for-elderly-provides-jobs-for-stavisky-allies.html

It appears that some things never change, except that the amount of lost taxpayer funds grows larger!