Posted on 08/03/2005 2:27:30 AM PDT by Liz
The New York Sun takes on the Air America story today and advances it by leaps and bounds, talking with the president of the non-profit which had its money taken by Air America founder Evan Cohen. It turns out that Cohen didn't just get money for the netlet, but also managed to get plenty for his own pockets as well while sitting on the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club board:
Initially, members of the executive committee viewed Mr. Cohen fondly because he had thrown a tremendously successful fund-raising affair for Gloria Wise in Manhattan last year. They recalled being impressed by the wealthy clientele and the large sums of money he raised, according to Ms. Graves.
Because of that confidence in Mr. Cohen, she said, the executive committee approved two loans to Air America, one for $80,000 and another for $87,000.
Ms. Capell said she had met Mr. Cohen several times.
"He was very suave, a very wonderful young man. He left a very favorable impression," she said in a telephone interview.
After the initial two loans, Ms. Graves said that just before the launch of Air America her organization lent the network another $213,000, authorized with a rubber stamp of her signature on a document she said she never saw. More recently, Ms. Graves said, Gloria Wise made a wire transfer of at least $400,000 to Air America without her knowledge.
In addition, according to Ms. Graves, the longtime executive director of Gloria Wise, Charles Rosen, later told the board he had lent an additional $35,000 of the organization's funds to Mr. Cohen for medical expenses. According to Ms. Capell, the board member, Mr. Cohen told Mr. Rosen he needed $25,000 to pay for chemotherapy. Mr. Cohen told associates that he recovered from brain cancer, according to Ms. Capell. Later, Mr. Cohen asked for $10,000 - which he was lent - be cause his father, a businessman in Asia, was "gravely ill," Ms. Capell said.
Ms. Graves said that she knew of the personal loans to Mr. Cohen, but that she thought they were taken from Mr. Rosen's personal discretionary budget, "not the agency's."
Now we have potential wire fraud, forgery, and fraud by deception, and probably a host of other potential charges against Mr. Cohen for his actions with Gloria Wise and Air America. Ms. Graves also tells the New York Sun that AA has agreed to pay back $800K over the next two years, not just the $480K originally noted by the Bronx News. Fortunately, Gloria Wise remained solvent, despite the wording in Piquant Media's earlier statements which tended to suggest otherwise.
Clearly, though, AA did not pay a dime back before this investigation broke open. Nor did they agree to pay back the illegal transfers immediately, which again underscores their fragile economic status. They still have to meet that payroll, including that of their stars, who apparently don't mind taking their money ahead of what's owed to the poor kids, elderly, and Alzheimers patients served by Gloria Wise.
Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney have plenty more on this story, including lots of links to past and present indicators of AA's precarious position. The New York Post also has started to cover the issue, which should garner even more national attention.
One certainty has arisen: this is no "phony" story. Air America had better get out in front of this, and its supporters should stop blaming the blogs for AA's miscreancy and demand that AA resolve the issue forthwith. Two years of dragging out payments for stolen money means two years and more of albatross-dragging for an enterprise that cannot afford any more baggage than it already has.
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Yikes...if I am an AA employee or fan, I would be hitting the ceiling wondering why I can see stars all of the sudden.
What a great lot of scumbags!!!
Good Gooblie Goo!
What a bunch of immoral, hypocritical pigs they are to steal money from children and the elderly to prop up a propaganda arm of the democrat party.
Now Air America has the fabulous Northern Alliance on its trail, AA is doomed.
"fraud by deception"
LOL. Sounds like their programing content.
Business as usual for some libs.
Northern Alliance?
Stealing money from children and elderly???
Democrats have been doing that for decades.
Any msm coverage of this criminal behavior and fraud is really NOT going to happen. The msm will be silent as usual when it comes to protecting "one of its own."
The top executive at a Bronx youth organization, [Boys & Girls Club] said yesterday that the former director of Air America Radio received more than $800,000 in loans for himself and the radio network from the nonprofit organization while serving as its development director...
ACTION PROJECT
Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, Inc.
950 Baychester Avenue
Bronx, NY 10475
PHONE: 718-320-7267
FAX: 718-320-3952
Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, Inc.
Educational Program Sites
MS 113--Richard R. Green Educational Complex
Principal: Janet Sanderson
MS 142--John Phillip Souza Middle School
Principal: Alan Borer
A top staffer at the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club in The Bronx, New York got the organization to "lend" nearly $500,000 to the left-wing radio network Air America — a move that eventually doomed the youth group. Al Franken says he knows nothing about it.
Now investigations are taking place charging wrongdoing and misuse of local city, state and federal funds. (Surf the thread to get specifics of the wrongdoing.)
Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club which conducts tax-funded so-called educational programs has the generous support of benefactors including the Charles Hayden Foundation, Con Edison, the Butler Foundation, Metropolitan Life, Pinkerton Foundation, Calder Foundation, and New York Community Trust that have helped the club continue to grow in recent years.
Most recently, a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice allowed the club to begin a multi-year mentoring program for more than 200 youth by the start
of 2003.
The NYC Department of Investigations is also looking into diversion of funds from the Pathways for Youth Boys & Girls Club, an affiliate of the Gloria Wise club.
According to the web site, Pathways has requested $206,872 under its No Child Left Behind Act 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program grant award.
The US Department of Education better be examining that request very carefully.
ACTION PROJECT
CONTACT Toll-free hot line to the U.S. Department of Education's Inspector General's office if you have reason to suspect any fraud, waste or abuse involving federal aid funds. You may remain anonymous if you wish.
Call 1-800-MIS-USED (1-800-647-8733).
Translation: What did Karl Rove know and when did he know it?
morning to ya, MizLiz.....I wonder if the contested race for DA this year will have an impact on this matter...force the DA's office to really start digging..and indicting..
What a bunch of immoral, hypocritical pigs they are to steal money from children and the elderly to prop up a propaganda arm of the democrat party.
They didn't exactly 'steal' the money since the money was 'loaned.' The real pisser is that a chapter of Boys & Girls Club was receiving $3.7 million in gov't grants on one hand (and who knows how much in individual, business & corporate donations) and passing 'more than $800,000' to Air America on the other hand. I gotz my doubts that B&G Club was making a full disclosure to all of their donors about how donated funds were being spent. I'm saying 'all' because I wonder if it's possible that some funds were donated to B&G but earmarked/ understood that the money would get passed on to AA. Don't know enough about money dealing shenanigans to know if this is a plausible theory....
One of the things that could--ahem--motivate the DA is the fact that Gloria Wise Club was dipping into the No Child Left Behind money-----one of President Bush's fave projects.
It's not nice for the DA to make the president look bad.....(snicker)
Still waiting for the New York Times to their story on this, but I guess they're too busy flogging the "dead horse Rove scandle"
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