Elizabeth Crowley admits she's got a strong opponent

Yesterday, Liz Crowley sent out a fundraising solicitation in which she admitted that she is going to have a tough time getting re-elected to a third term (which would bring her total time in the council to 13 years!):

I suppose this is why she recently introduced a useless bill - as the sole sponsor - to require that a separate Inspector General oversee the DHS & HRA.

Inspector General confirms that Creedmoor sale was shady

From the Queens Chronicle:

A scathing report issued by the New York State Inspector General’s Office blasts actions taken by the Indian Cultural and Community Center — and inaction by the New York State Dormitory Authority — in connection with the sale of more than four acres of property on the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center site in Queens Village.

The ICCC was before the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals on Tuesday in continuing its effort to construct a pair of nine-story towers on the property.

The project has been roundly opposed by residents, local elected officials, civic associations and Community Board 13.

The 18-page IG report found that “the ICCC exploited loopholes in the statute and lapses in oversight by the Dormitory Authority ... which was tasked with overseeing the transaction.”

The ICCC first proposed purchasing about 4.5 acres for the creation of a cultural and community center, an athletic field and parking spaces, a sale that went through in 2008 with the backing of Assemblywoman Barbara Clark (D-Queens Village), former state Sen. Frank Padavan and then-Assemblyman and current Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens).

By the time the contract was signed, the ICCC was claiming it was allowed to build the two apartment towers, first proposing 126 units and now seeking 143.

The IG’s report states that Dormitory Authority officials negotiating the contract were ignorant of the Legislature’s intent on land use restrictions when making the deal; and that the ICCC representatives did nothing to fill the gap in the agency’s knowledge.

It also said the Legislature never placed the specific restrictions in the authorizing statute itself.

Avella & civic leaders rally against BSA application

(Bellerose, QUEENS) On Saturday, September 7, Senator Tony Avella, Bellerose civic leaders and residents rallied against the Indian Cultural and Community Center (ICCC) for moving ahead with their Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) application despite the recent release of a report by the New York State Office of the Inspector General that criticized the ICCC’s involvement in a state land sale.

Two years ago, Avella reached out to the Inspector General and the Attorney General and asked for an extensive review of the New York State Dormitory Authority’s sale of 4.5 acres of land on the Creedmore psychiatric-hospital campus in a no-bid deal to the politically connected nonprofit group for a fraction of its value.

This past week the Inspector General released their report which showed clear and convincing evidence that the ICCC not only “exploited loopholes in the statute and lapses in oversight by the Dormitory Authority” but purposely sought to deceive that agency as well as members of the community and elected officials regarding their intention to build residential housing on property which is the subject of the applications currently before the BSA. The findings in the report have been referred to the Attorney General’s office.

Despite this information, the ICCC is moving ahead with their BSA application, which is scheduled to be heard at a public hearing on September 10th.

Avella stated, “From the very beginning, I have had my suspicions regarding the ICCC’s involvement in this shady land deal. The Inspector General’s report confirms my suspicions, that at the very least the ICCC intentionally engaged in deceptive practices with the intent to mislead the public about its intentions with this property and at the very worst engaged in possible illegal activity. Obviously, this is completely unacceptable and the public deserves better. That is why I am pleased that this matter has been referred to the Attorney General for further review. We must get to the bottom of any misconduct committed by anyone involved with this land deal.”

“I am calling on the Attorney General to fully investigate the potential illegal conduct of the ICCC and for BSA to postpone any hearing until such a review is conducted,” concluded Avella.

Taxpayer-funded Lexus?

From the NY Post:

A Queens nursing-home director billed taxpayer-funded Medicaid for his . . . Lexus!

The 240-bed Elmhurst Care Center overcharged Medicaid by some $1.65 million — including more than $105,000 in expenses for a Lexus used by Executive Director Mark Persaud and another vehicle assigned to the marketing executive, Gov. Cuomo’s Medicaid probers claim.

The six-year audit, conducted by state Office of Medicaid Inspector General James Cox, concluded that expensing the program for the hospital administrator’s luxury vehicle was beyond the pale.

“Costs pertaining to luxury automobiles are not related to patient care. Consequently, disallowances were necessary,” said the OMIG audit, which examined billings from 2000 to 2006.

Elmhurst Care insisted the expenses were aboveboard.

Why is NY's Medicaid so damn expensive?

From the NY Post:

State Senate Republicans plan to investigate New York’s costliest-in-the-nation Medicaid system and echoed congressional calls for an independent audit of the $54 billion annual program.

The Senate GOP said it will particularly target accusations of “complacency and inaction” by the state Office of the Medicaid Inspector General under Gov. Cuomo.

The Republicans also said yesterday that New York’s Medicaid program generally needs more continual monitoring and evaluation from outside auditors.

A recent congressional report contended that New York overbilled the federal government by billions of dollars over 20 years.

Creedmoor tweeding project revision

From the Queens Chronicle:

The Indian Cultural and Community Center has revamped plans for building senior housing on the campus of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center. The project has been embroiled in controversy since it was first proposed. Now that the group wants to add an extra 17 apartments to the mix has civic leaders and at least one elected official furious.

“The ICCC continues to amaze me,” state Sen Tony Avella (D-Bayside) told the Chronicle Wednesday. “There are two open investigations. The community and elected officials are dead set against this plan, so why the ICCC continues to pursue this is beyond me.”

The ICCC owns approximately 4.5 acres at Creedmoor, located at 79-25 Winchester Blvd., in Queens Village and wants to build a community center and senior housing. Originally they were seeking to construct two nine-story buildings, with 126 apartments. Now it’s asking to place 143 apartments into the same size towers.

Jordan Most, the zoning lawyer for the ICCC, said the new plan “fits the mode of senior affordable housing better.”

Both the state attorney general and inspector general are investigating the deal to determine if there was any inappropriate or criminal behavior on the part of the group and both current and former elected officials.

“Even if the investigation doesn’t find anything, the ICCC has been unethical throughout this process,” Avella said. They’ve lied to the community several times. They’ve changed their plan three or four times. Now, they’ve changed it again. ... The project will move ahead over my dead body.”

The ICCC has also recently petitioned the Board of Standards and Appeals for a waiver because the project does not have frontage on a mapped city street.

Taxpayer ID numbers used for fraud

From Fox News:

A recently released report shows widespread tax fraud in connection with the federal government’s Individual Taxpayer Identification Number program.

The U.S. Treasury inspector general report accuses the IRS of discouraging employees from reviewing applications for the ID numbers, which are generally from non-resident workers.

The inspector general specifically said there were 154 mailing addresses that were used 1,000 or more times on applications, including 15,795 numbers assigned to a Phoenix address.

The report, which evaluated the processing year 2011, also found inadequate controls can result in the numbers being assigned to people who have not proved their identity or foreign status, which can result in fraudulent tax returns.

The inspector general also found 10 individual addresses were used for filing 53,994 tax returns and receiving $86.4 million in fraudulent tax refunds. For example, 23,994 tax refunds totaling $46.3 million were issued to an address in Atlanta; and 2,507 tax refunds totaling $10.4 million were issued to an address in Oxnard, Calif.

In addition, the Treasury’s Inspector General for Tax Administration reports found 10 bank accounts received 23,560 tax refunds totaling more than $16 million -- including: 2,706 tax refunds issued to a single account totaling $7.3 million.

Illegals get tax rewards for reproducing

From Fox 5:

Undocumented workers in the US collected $4.2 billion in a certain tax credit last year, up from less than $1 billion five years ago, according to a new audit by the Treasury Department's Inspector General for Tax Administration revealed Friday.

The report looked only at a tax benefit known as the Additional Child Tax Credit, a refundable credit meant for working families. The audit found that as a result of vague US law -- as well as an expansion of the tax credit in stimulus legislation and other measures -- the number of illegal workers collecting the money has skyrocketed.

The inspector general's office expressed concern about the trend and urged the IRS and Treasury Department to determine once and for all whether that money should be paid out.

"The payment of federal funds through this tax benefit appears to provide an additional incentive for aliens to enter, reside and work in the United States without authorization, which contradicts federal law and policy to remove such incentives," the report said.

Weprin, Padavan deny Creedmoor malfeasance

From the Queens Chronicle:

Former state Sen. Frank Padavan and City Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens), both supported the Indian Cultural and Community Center when it purchased two parcels of land at the site, approximately 4.5 acres, in 2008, which the group said it would use to build a community center, athletic field and parking lot.

But now the group’s plans have changed and it has lost the political backing of Weprin and Padavan that it once had.

Padavan said that representatives of the ICCC told him they planned to build a community and youth center. When asked if he supported the new plan, Padavan replied, “The area is not zoned for it,” adding “I am not in office anymore. I have nothing to do with this.”

When asked if he favors the apartment towers, a plan he said he only learned of recently, Weprin said he does not. He believes affordable housing for seniors is needed in the area, but not on the large scale that the ICCC is proposing.

The lawmaker also denied an accusation by state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside), who replaced Padavan, that he pushed him to back legislation supporting the second deal.

The whole thing is now under investigation and Tony Avella is introducing legislation to make sure this doesn't happen again in the future.

Widespread parking placard abuse

From the Daily News:

An Inspector General probe found widespread misuse of police parking placards by lawmakers and other state officials, the Daily News has learned.

Inspector General Ellen Biben, who launched the probe at Gov. Cuomo's request, will call for major changes in the way the parking passes are distributed, a source close to the probe told The News.

Thousands of placards stating a vehicle is on "official police business" have been issued by the state Department of Homeland Security - but distributed throughout the government.

Some go to the state police - others to the Office of Court Administration.

But many wind up in the hands of lawmakers and state officials who are not in law enforcement - and have no reason to be on official police business.

According to sources, the parking cheats include:

- Sen. Jose Peralta (D-Queens), who told The News on Tuesday the placards were traditionally handed out as a courtesy to senators.

- Waterfront Commissioner Ronald Goldstock - caught by The News using the official police placard while teaching a class on corruption at New York University Law School.

- Two Division of Parole officials who were on long-term leave.

- The Department of Environmental Conservation for giving a placard to an unpaid rabbi - former state police rabbi Bernard Freilich.

Biben also found that some people gave the placards to friends.

From the NY Times:

Cuomo administration officials announced on Thursday that they would sharply reduce the number of police parking placards handed out each year in an effort to crack down on abuses by state officials.

The new policy would strip state lawmakers, commissioners and other nonpolice personnel of state parking placards bearing the words “Police Vehicle Identification,” hundreds of which had been handed out annually with little oversight, according to the state inspector general, and in some cases abused by the bearer.

The total number of police placards handed out would be cut from 1,730 last year to 261 this year. In the future, the officials said, the State Police would handle distribution of police placards, which will be assigned only to members of that agency and other state employees with statutory police powers, like investigators with the office of the attorney general or police officers working under the department of environmental conservation.

AEG subpoena fight cost state big time bucks

From City Hall:

Senate Democrats spent tens-of-thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds to quash subpoenas issued by the state Inspector General’s office seeking information about the conference’s role in the Aqueduct Entertainment Group scandal, according to Senate expense records.

On April 1, 2010 Senate Democrats cut a check for $29,300 to the Manhattan criminal defense firm Thompson, Wigdor & Gilly LLP—a payment Senate Democratic spokesperson Austin Shafran confirmed was used for a lawsuit to block the Inspector General’s subpoena requests, though the State Supreme Court ultimately rejected the suit. All of this came less than a month after the Paterson administration, under a cloud of scandal, shut down the AEG contract.

Shafran insisted the funds were used for official Senate business, and not to shield individual members from potential legal fallout.

In October, the Inspector General’s office released a scathing report that found several high-ranking Democratic senators, including now-Minority Leader John Sampson, Malcolm Smith and Eric Adams, among others, had acted improperly in initially helping AEG win a multi-billion dollar racino bid.

Notably, $118,000 in subsequent payments to Thompson, Wigdor & Gilly were made by the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee in June for individual legal services for Senate members. Shafran said the shifting nature of the case led Senate Democrats to pay the firm at first out of government funds and later out of campaign funds.

Thompson, Wigdor & Gilly did not return a request for comment about the firm’s role in the case.

What a waste public authorities are!

MYFOXNY.COM - An investigation by the New York inspector general revealed that the Battery Park City Authority has squandered more than $300,000 on parties, gifts, and free lunches.

"Such excessive spending by a state authority was outrageous," said Inspector General Joseph Fisch, who also noted that the authority's staff complained of favoritism by top executives.

The inspector general's report identified wasteful spending of public funds from 2005 through 2008 on items from $100,000 on executive lunches to $16,000 open-bar parties and $100,000 in inappropriate charitable donations, including a gift to Auburn University Foundation, in Alabama.

Clamping down on Medicaid fraud

From the NY Post:

The number of suspected Medicaid-fraud cases handled by state investigators -- ranging from dirty dentists and druggists to millionaires illegally on the dole -- more than doubled last year, according to an explosive new report.

The state Office of Medicaid Inspector General referred 208 cases to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office for potential criminal prosecution of health-care providers -- a 136 percent increase from 2008.

Meanwhile, the number of suspected cases of Medicaid-patient fraud referred to local prosecutors also skyrocketed.

For example, the number of suspected forgeries tied to the diversion of prescription drugs jumped from 304 to 683.

Overall, the number of substantiated fraud cases involving Medicaid patients increased 50 percent, the report said. A total of 552 cases were referred to New York City investigators for potential prosecution, the report said.

Flake and rappers to be questioned in Aqueduct probe

From NY1:

Former congressman, the Reverend Floyd Flake, along with rap moguls Jay Z and Russell Simmons reportedly will be subpoenaed today, as part of the investigation into the controversial contract to operate a casino at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Flake is an investor in a group that won a contract earlier this year to bring more than 4,000 video slot machines to the financially-troubled racetrack.

Critics, including losing bidders for the project, said Flake’s group won because of his political connections to Governor David Paterson.

The New York Post says Flake, Jay Z, and Simmons are the first of dozens expected to be questioned about the deal.

The paper says the subpoenas were issued by the State Inspector General's Office, which is working with the United States Attorney.

Serves you right for backing the turd last year.

Inspector General joins Aqueduct probe

From the NY Post:

Federal investigators have asked the state's anti-corruption watchdog to help with their probe into Gov. Paterson's selection of a politically wired consortium to run the Aqueduct slots "racino," The Post has learned.

Investigators from US Attorney Preet Bharara's office in Manhattan met secretly with state Inspector General Joseph Fisch on Monday about probing the state's preliminary award to Aqueduct Entertainment Group -- whose partners include powerhouse Queens minister and ex-Rep. Floyd Flake.

"They [feds] met with Fisch Monday to discuss the investigation and to talk about his office's helping out, about dividing up the responsibilities for the investigation," said a source close to the federal probe.

That strategy session came three days before Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) urged the state inspector general to investigate the Paterson administration's role in pushing AEG to operate 4,500 video lottery terminals at Aqueduct.

Word of the mushrooming AEG investigation clashes with Paterson's assertion that a federal subpoena issued to the Lottery Division earlier this week targeted a Queens nonprofit group -- New Direction Local Development Corp. -- and not the AEG selection. New Direction has ties to Flake, Rep. Greg Meeks and state Senate President Malcolm Smith -- all from southeast Queens, where the Aqueduct track is.