Monday, August 8, 2005
Spitzer Probing Air America Loan
New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has opened a preliminary probe into a suspicious loan obtained by the left-wing radio network Air America from the largely taxpayer-funded Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club of New York City.
"We are looking into it in consultation with the city's Department of Investigation," Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp told the New York Post on Saturday.
Last month, the DOI said Gloria Wise was under investigation for approving "significant inappropriate transactions" and using "falsified documents that were submitted to various city agencies."
In July, the Bronx News reported that the Air America loan "is at the center of the city’s probe of corruption at the local club." Subsequent reports have pegged the loan's amount at $875,000.
Spitzer's spokesman said the probe is examining "the conduct of the board of [the] charitable not-for-profit organization. The question is: Was their action appropriate?"
Gloria Wise board member Hillel Valentine told the Post that "a gentleman from the Attorney General's Office" visited their offices on Friday.
"I expect that," said Valentine, 80, a former assistant chief in the New York Transit Police Department. "That's their job. I would do the same thing myself."
The Post said that the AG's decision to launch a probe was driven by "Internet bloggers and Republican critics [who] began pounding Spitzer for not intervening" since the DOI investigation was revealed last month.
After promising to pay back Gloria Wise weeks ago, the liberal network has finally started to make amends for the fishy financing - depositing a $50,000 installment in an escrow account controlled by Air America's lawyer.
But even that transaction has raised the eyebrows of DOI probers, who had urged Air America to place the entire $875,000 in an escrow account that no one could touch without their approval.
New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has opened a preliminary probe into a suspicious loan obtained by the left-wing radio network Air America from the largely taxpayer-funded Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club of New York City.
"We are looking into it in consultation with the city's Department of Investigation," Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp told the New York Post on Saturday.
Last month, the DOI said Gloria Wise was under investigation for approving "significant inappropriate transactions" and using "falsified documents that were submitted to various city agencies."
In July, the Bronx News reported that the Air America loan "is at the center of the city’s probe of corruption at the local club." Subsequent reports have pegged the loan's amount at $875,000.
Spitzer's spokesman said the probe is examining "the conduct of the board of [the] charitable not-for-profit organization. The question is: Was their action appropriate?"
Gloria Wise board member Hillel Valentine told the Post that "a gentleman from the Attorney General's Office" visited their offices on Friday.
"I expect that," said Valentine, 80, a former assistant chief in the New York Transit Police Department. "That's their job. I would do the same thing myself."
The Post said that the AG's decision to launch a probe was driven by "Internet bloggers and Republican critics [who] began pounding Spitzer for not intervening" since the DOI investigation was revealed last month.
After promising to pay back Gloria Wise weeks ago, the liberal network has finally started to make amends for the fishy financing - depositing a $50,000 installment in an escrow account controlled by Air America's lawyer.
But even that transaction has raised the eyebrows of DOI probers, who had urged Air America to place the entire $875,000 in an escrow account that no one could touch without their approval.
