Follow the Money

 

My Good Friend Yonkers Confidential has returned with another great piece–DJM

 

Follow the Money

 

by Yonkers Confidential

 

Everyone is waiting for the next shoe to drop in the ongoing U.S. Attorney’s Public Integrity investigation into Yonkers and Westchester County. A few tidbits that might be interesting to those who follow Westchester politics.

 

THE RIDGE HILL CIRCLE

New York Times reporter Alison Leigh Cowan confirmed in a 2008 column, through an agent involced in the federal investigation, that Ridge Hill lobbyist Al Pirro had a conversation in February of 2005 with former Yonkers Councilman Dennis Robertson during which Pirro expressed confidence that he could win Sandy Annabi’s support for the Ridge Hill project as long as he made Yonkers Republican Chairman Zehy Jereis happy. Mr. Robertson was subsequently questioned in 2008 by federal prosecutors about this wiretapped conversation.

 

To get the Ridge Hill deal done, Pirro needed to engage Senator Nick Spano, Zehy Jereis’ ‘political handler.’ After a conversation, the deal was struck. Nick would have his brother, Assemblyman Mike, take a temporary leave from the NYS Assembly and join the Pat Lynch’s lobbying firm, guaranteeing that Nick got paid for his efforts – at an arm’s length, of course, because he was still a NYS Senator. Nick Spano was very close to Shelly Silver, Lynch’s former boss. And Silver still owed Spano for clearing the way to make Silver’s boyhood pal, Jonathan Lippman, the Chief Judge of the NYS Court of Appeals.

 

Mike Spano, now a Lynch lobbyist, introduced Zehy Jereis to Ratner’s Bruce Bender and continued to massage the relationship, knowing full well about the payment that would be made to Annabi to get her vote on the project. Bender made a deal with Jereis, contingent upon getting Annabi’s support for Ridge Hill, that would pay him a $60,000 consulting contract. When the vote was taken in July of 2006, everyone got paid, and Mike Spano returned to the NYS Assembly in 2008. This is the criminal conspiracy that is at the heart of the Ridge Hill investigation.

 

Although Al Pirro obviously believed that Jereis was the conduit to get Annabi’s vote, others apparently felt another middleman could be just as successful with Annabi. The question that remains is: Who was it that steered the Milio Brothers to Anthony Mangone to secure Sandy’s vote on Longfellow/School 6 project?

 

THE PAYMENTS

From the Criminal indictment, USA v. Sandy Annabi, Zehy Jereis and Anthony Mangone…

“Since at least 2004, ANNABI has received from JEREIS, MANGONE, and others more than $160,00 worth of secret payments designed to influence and reward her for favorable official action or inaction on matters pending before the City Council as specific opportunities arose. ANNABI, JERIES, and MANGONE also took various steps to conceal their scheme, by making false statements and/or omitting required information in various reporting documents.”

 

This best the question: Who were the others alluded to in the indictment who were making these ongoing bribe payments to Annabi? Between 2004 and 2008, Zehy Jereis either wrote personal checks or money orders, or made various cash payments for Sandy Annabi, totaling over $130,000. And this was in addition to the $30,000 payment from Milio Brothers Management, through Anthony Mangone, regarding the Longfellow development bribe.

 

It is obvious that Zehy Jereis was merely the conduit for these bribes. So who was it that was making these payments, and what other projects were on the table in addition to Ridge Hill and Longfellow?

 

This will be answered in the next round of federal indictments. Coming very soon.