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April 20, 2011
Paying the price to be heard in Albany
LoHud.com
Consider the saga of Patricia Lynch Associates LLC, as discussed in the Sunday article. The robust lobbying firm paid a $500,000 fine last year as part of a settlement with then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office. Investigators asserted that the firm arranged campaign contributions, gifts and other favors to gain access for clients to the state Comptroller's Office under the disgraced Alan Hevesi. The firm also agreed to a five-year ban on lobbying the comptroller's office.
In 2010, Patricia Lynch Associates clients included the City of Yonkers, which paid it a total of $78,486. Another Lynch client is Forest City Ratner, the developer building the massive, mixed-use Ridge Hill complex in Yonkers. It figures prominently in a federal corruption case against former Yonkers Councilmember Sandy Annabi, a Democrat accused of accepting a bribe to drop her longstanding opposition to Ridge Hill.
Posted by eric at April 20, 2011 10:28 AM