Posted on 08/12/2005 9:42:28 PM PDT by Libloather
N.Y. Community Center Loan Investigated
By DAVID B. CARUSO
Associated Press Writer
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer speaks at a news conference in New York, July 25, 2005. A New York radio station has agreed to pay $240,000 after sponsoring 'smackfest' contests in which young women took turns slapping each other for a chance to win concert tickets and cash, Spitzer and State Athletic Commission Chairman Ron Scott Stevens said on Monday. REUTERS/Mike Segar
NEW YORK — State and city officials are investigating how $875,000 from a community center funded largely by government grants and contracts wound up in the coffers of Air America, the liberal radio network.
A spokesman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said his office has opened a probe into the financial dealings of the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, which runs programs for poor children and senior citizens.
The center and officials at Air America Radio have acknowledged that at about the time of the network's founding in early 2004, the club made a series of loans to a company called Progress Media, which was then Air America's parent company.
Both entities have said the payments were arranged by Air America co-founder Evan Cohen, who, at the time, also was a development director at Gloria Wise.
Cohen's involvement with Air America was severed in May 2004 amid confusion surrounding the network's finances just a month after it went on the air. A new corporation, Piquant LLC, purchased the assets of Progress Media later that spring.
In June 2005, city agencies began canceling contracts with the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club while the city's Department of Investigation probed allegations that the club approved inappropriate transactions and falsified documents submitted to city agencies.
Department of Investigation spokeswoman Emily Gest said Friday that the probe is ongoing. Spitzer spokesman Brad Maione declined to comment on the attorney general's investigation into the club's activities, other than to confirm its existence.
Air America Radio said in a statement posted on its Web site that it had agreed to repay the $875,000, although it believed that the now-defunct Progress Media was legally responsible for the debt.
"If the allegations of mismanagement and corruption at Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club are true, it is absolutely disgraceful," the statement said.
The network's star, comedian and talk show host Al Franken, addressed the issue briefly on his show Monday. He called Cohen "a crook" and said the network's current managers had discovered the loans through forensic accounting.
"I don't know why they did it and I don't know where the money went. I don't know if it was used for operations, which I imagine it was," Franken said. "I think he was robbing Peter to pay Paul."
He added that he believed the station has a moral obligation to repay the money.
Attempts to locate Evan Cohen were not immediately successful Friday.
A spokeswoman for Gloria Wise said the center is in "continuing discussions" with Air America on a repayment schedule for the loans.
August 12, 2005 - 9:14 p.m. PDT
> I believe I read that Spitzer wants to run for governor.
Which would explain why he (reportedly a Dem, with a 9/11
whitewasher on his staff) is "investigating" only the
apparent victims here.
Can't go and upset the base by going after Air Enron.
Judging by liberal standards, Spitzer would qualify with distinction.
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