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May 10, 2008
Prosecutors subpoena Michael Spano
The Journal News
By Timothy O'Connor and Glenn Blain
The feds now want to talk to former Assemblyman Michael Spano about his dealings with the Yonkers City Council and Forest City Ratner's controversial Ridge Hill development project:
Federal prosecutors investigating the Yonkers City Council's handling of the controversial Ridge Hill development have issued a grand jury subpoena to Assemblyman Michael Spano.
Two federal agents visited Spano on Thursday at his office and asked him about his dealings with Ridge Hill as well as powerbroker Albert Pirro, the estranged husband of former Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro and a one-time lobbyist for the $630 million project.
...
Spano's subpoena orders him to appear before a federal grand jury in White Plains on May 20.After he left the Assembly in 2004, Spano worked for the Patricia Lynch Associates lobbying firm, which has Forest City Ratner as a client. He said he was asked in 2005, because of his knowledge of Yonkers, to speak to city officials to gauge their views and objections to the project. He said he spoke to council members Annabi, Dee Barbato and John Murtagh.
His dealings were "strictly informational," he said. He did not lobby them, he said, but just relayed the information to his firm.
"No one at any time did anything inappropriate that I am aware of," Spano said.
The probe has focused on lobbying efforts of council members on behalf of the project.
Read the rest of the article for more details and a wrap-up of the political scandal forming around the approval of Bruce Ratner's project.
Three words: Follow the money.
Posted by lumi at May 10, 2008 12:55 PM