Feds Probe Joe (Bruno -- Leading NY Republican)

December 20, 2006 -- ALBANY - Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno - soon to be the state's most powerful Republican - revealed last night that he's under FBI investigation in a case relating to a private consulting business he runs out of his home.

The bombshell announcement came just hours after The Post told a top Bruno aide that it had learned that the Northern District U.S. Attorney's Office in Syracuse had issued subpoenas for information relating to Capital Business Consultants, which Bruno set up about six years ago.

One source with knowledge of the probe said federal authorities were seeking to determine if Bruno had received payments from business interests seeking benefits from the state Legislature or from Gov. Pataki's office.


http://www.nypost.com/seven/12202006/news/regionalnews/feds_probe_joe_regionalnews_fredric_u__dicker.htm

The Republicans have really been ripping off this state. I'd love to see Bruno get his.

The article makes a refernce to state Comptroller Alan Hevesi. Alan Hevesi (D) has been doing a grand job properly investing the state's money and blowing the whistle on all kinds of big money sweetheart deals betweeen Republican office holders and their friends. He used a state chauffer just as did most officials in ALbany and now the Republicans are trying to hang him for it.

December 20, 2006

ALBANY, N.Y. -- The majority leader of the New York state Senate announced that the FBI is investigating him and his private consulting business.

Joseph Bruno, who will be the state's top Republican in January, said Tuesday he was told by the FBI in late spring that he was being investigated. The 77-year-old lawmaker said he doesn't know exactly what investigators are looking for, but he has cooperated.

He was told previously that he was not a target of the investigation, but said he wasn't sure if that had changed.

Bruno, who became majority leader in 1994, said he decided to make the announcement after learning news of the investigation had been leaked to reporters.

"I wanted to be up front and assure that I have nothing to hide and avoid speculation, unfounded rumors, and distortions," said Bruno. "There have never been conflicts in anything I have done."

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-ny-senate-leader-investigation,0,1136249.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

<snip>
Joe Bruno is a LIAR
by: lipris
Thu Dec 07, 2006 at 12:50:42 PM EST

Period. We have already established that much. Today's Albany Times Union gives yet another sad example in a story about our state Senate Majority Leader funneling public money to a for profit company seemingly run by "close friends" that the he "does not have personal ties with".
For-profit company gets aid
Firm with ties to Senate Majority Leader Bruno received unusual grants

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau


State Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno provided a pair of highly unusual state grants to a for-profit company in his district whose directors and investors have links to the Brunswick Republican.
The company, Evident Technologies Inc., has received two $250,000 grants at Bruno's direction since the 2001 fiscal year. The $500,000 in grants from a pork barrel fund Bruno controls are remarkable because for-profit companies almost never receive these member items, as such earmarks are called.

Apparently, the taxpayers of New York, courtesy of Joe "the glitch" Bruno, have been giving, not loaning, money to Evident Technologies for "operating assistance". Nice work if you can get it.

And of course Bruno doesn't have any "personal ties" with the company.


Bruno's spokesman, Mark Hansen, said Bruno does not have personal ties to Evident.
And of course this statement, like so many others from the Majority Leader, is a flat out LIE.

lipris :: Joe Bruno is a LIAR
Bruno has ties to two Evident principals -- Jared Abbruzzese and Wayne Barr -- both of whom share the senator's keen interest in horse racing.
Abbruzzese is a Loudonville resident under investigation by the state lobbying commission for providing his aircraft to Bruno for several trips, including a fund-raiser and tour of horse farms in Kentucky last year that Barr set up for Bruno. He is described by one associate as a close friend of Bruno.

Abbruzzese's wife, Sherrie, was among the buyers of land sold by First Grafton Corp., a firm in which Bruno was a 25 percent owner. She bought 12 waterfront acres in 2004 for $90,000, according to Rensselaer County records.

Barr, Abbruzzese's business partner in various ventures, was an appointee of Bruno's on the New York Racing Association Board of Trustees until earlier this year.

....

Barr said his and Abbruzzese's friendship with Bruno had nothing to do with the member item...

So Joe doesn't know the guy under investigation for lending his private jet to him for "several trips" for such things as a fund raiser and a "tour of horse farms in Kentucky" or the person who shares his "keen interest in horse racing" that he appointed to the state's Racing Association Board of Trustees.

There is a word for such statements. The term "bullshit" comes to mind.

Keep 'em coming, Mr Bruno. We'll keep calling you out on them.

http://www.thealbanyproject.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=56

"I wanted to be up-front'...after...learning news of the investigation had been leaked to reporters....
edit..(I just had to add this)

So he made the announcement after finding the info had been leaked to reporters. Um, OK... Interesting take on "up front".

I cannot find an explanation for this anywhere. Why? Do the districts have equal population, or are they territorially equal? Please explain.

but in general, the rest of the state is very conservative.

Federal Inquiry Focuses on 2 Bruno Firms
By MIKE McINTIRE
Published: December 21, 2006

Federal investigators have issued subpoenas to at least two firms linked to the State Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, as part of their investigation into his business dealings, one of Mr. Bruno’s former business partners and a legislative aide said yesterday.

One of the companies was a partnership involving Mr. Bruno and an influential Albany lobbyist that bought and sold lakeside property in Rensselaer County, including a parcel that was purchased by the wife of Jared E. Abbruzzese. Mr. Abbruzzese is an investor in a group seeking control of the state’s thoroughbred racing franchise — a decision in which Mr. Bruno will play a key role.
(snip)

Mr. Bruno has purchased stock in about a half-dozen companies whose principals obtained state aid or contracts, sometimes with his help, according to a review of his financial-disclosure reports and other public records. He also once co-owned a small apartment building with an Albany-area businessman, who said that Mr. Bruno asked him to step in and replace the senator’s son as an investment partner.
(snip)

The disclosure has rattled the marble-halled State Capitol and prompted speculation about his political viability. As recently as October, Mr. Bruno was calling on the embattled state comptroller, Alan G. Hevesi, a Democrat, to resign in the face of claims that he used state employees to chauffer his wife.
(snip/...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/nyregion/21bruno.html?_r=1&oref=slogin



Joseph L. Bruno