Banking on Andy Cuomo
Adams, Sam Dealey and James Ring
HUD Secretary and rising Democratic star Andrew Cuomo wants to go places—assuming he can leave some baggage behind. SAM DEALEY & JAMES ADAMS t couldn't have been more straightforward. The Senate...
...Another reason that Cuomo's involvement with Oceanmark wasn't mentioned at the hearing may be that D'Amato had his own not-so-kosher connections to the New York Group...
...The Fensters said they had been interviewed by the FBI, and that the bureau appeared to be conducting its own investigation of Cuomo and his associates...
...he need only have recused himself from decisions involving the partnership (which he had done two weeks earlier...
...At the time he told a reporter that Cuomo had threatened him, saying, "I'll ruin your career...
...I called and found out you filed for an extension...
...But that's exactly what the group did not do...
...The next day the New York Post had run a picture of Cuomo, wearing black tie at a party the previous night, over the caption, "He's one sick puppy...
...The Justice Department apparently has not investigated Cuomo's responses...
...It is imperative that you and I sit down together and discuss the whole Venture deal and on Monday I will put out the call for $500,000," Goldstein wrote to Cuomo...
...Other aspects of the cozy Goldstein-Cuomo relationship frequently cropped up in New York papers during the mid-1980's, including: • In 1984 Arco Management won a state contract to manage the Bridge and Jackie Robinson housing projects in New York City...
...Goldstein, a heavy D'Amato donor, and seven members of the New York Group realized a $17-million windfall from a juicy HUD package patched together by a senior HUD official, Joseph Monticciolo, and pushed through by D'Amato...
...One of the loans that federal agents are investigating was a piddling $300,000 to underwrite Scores, a New York strip club which the Feds charge became a racket for the Gambino crime family...
...In the 1982 campaign alone, the Goldstein machine contributed more than $49,000...
...I really don't know what you did on your taxes," Goldstein wrote Andrew...
...And Shelley had a thing that no one would ever lose money...
...Yet Blutrich's fraud case had been widely reported months earlier, and Cuomo's former business associates had known about it almost immediately...
...Blutrich was vice-president and 50-percent shareholder...
...Senate (Republican controlled) have all stated that all nomination forms and procedures were correctly complied with by Mr...
...The American Spectator • January 1999 According to the Fensters, Cuomo took "no" very badly, threatened reprisal, and retaliated by pushing the OTS into an extended examination aimed at closing Oceanmark down...
...Andrew was his dad's right-hand man in Albany at the time, and Goldstein, as chairman of the State University Construction Fund, was a state official.3 • In 1987 Goldstein and Cuomo were wrapped up in a criminal and civil case and a State Investigation Committee (SIC) inquiry into a campaign quid pro quo...
...He took part in Mario's losing bid for mayor of the Big Apple in 1977, and in his successful run for lieutenant governor a year later...
...The first time you didn't bring your money—he told me this —you didn't get to go again...
...The GOP opponent in that race could turn out to be none other than Alfonse D'Amato...
...Goldstein, according to the New York Times, had extensive property interests in the area and, in 1986, attempted to purchase the 3o-square-mile forest...
...1 Cuomo and the other signatories may have misled regulators in order to close the deal...
...2 The current allegations are, of course, not ten years old, but arise from the Fensters' 1996 refusal to sign a statement similar to their 1988 apology to Cuomo...
...A monthly disbursement check to Cuomo from the venture, a copy of which TAS has obtained, bears Blutrich's signature, and an accompanying letter shows that it was mailed in 1995 to Cuomo's HUD address, with "best personal regards...
...In 1983, the New York State Investigation Commission (SIC) concluded that Cuomo and two other aides — including current NBC News star Tim Russert—bullied members of the allied Liberal Party to support a Cuomo-favored candidate to head the party...
...Concealed takeover groups are a major no-no in financial regulation, and Cuomo's group had filed none of the required changein-control papers...
...Most notable among Cuomo's past associates is Michael Blutrich, head of the law firm which Cuomo joined as a $15o,000a-year partner in 1985...
...2 A similar letter to TAS from Cuomo's private lawyers states, "We intend to protect his interests and will not tolerate any purported reporting, based on smear tactics, to enhance anyone's private business agenda or to increase circulation...
...A Mason-Dixon poll conducted at the time showed Cuomo edging out D'Amato 4138 percent...
...Goldstein could also be a generous political benefactor...
...He always gave them their money back if they lost money...
...THE WITNESS 1-"OlUVIERLY KNOWN AS BLUTRICH Another New York investor in Oceanmark was Michael Blutrich, a name partner in Cuomo's firm...
...And then there's Cuomo's predecessor at HUD, Henry Cisneros, who resigned in the face of an independent counsel investigation...
...According to Weiss, "much of Blutrich's ill-gotten gains were spent supporting or covering up" pedophilia...
...By acceding to the agreement's stern language, Cuomo and his fellow investors avoided any fault-based action by the FHLBB.' Despite its clear interest in knowing about the agreement, Oceanmark only learned about it by chance in early 1991...
...the firm was raided by the FBI...a former employee called me," says Cuomo's former partner...
...In a letter of March 4, 1997, Ocean-mark noted that the acting head of the OTS at the time, Nicholas Retsinas, was simultaneously HUD's assistant secretary for housing and the federal housing commissioner, and hence subordinate to Secretary Cuomo...
...In 1994, after a two-year sting, Blutrich was charged with multiple counts of sexual assault on a minor (to which he secured a sweetheart plea-bargain), and a story in the December 1998 Penthouse quotes an anonymous partner in Blutrich's law firm saying, "Everyone knew what Michael was doing with these young boys...
...Soon after, a $3-million advance for "future commissions" was drawn from the insurance company by the Blutrich group and deposited into the firm's escrow account...
...In the general run-off against the vastly better financed Republican Lew Lehrman, Andrew again prevailed...
...Several months before, Cuomo had backed out of another scheduled deposition, submitting an affidavit that he was sick with nausea, diarrhea, and headaches...
...Cuomo testified to the committee that he had acted in the state's best interests at the time, not Goldstein's...
...According to these sources, it was understood that if D'Amato could protect his seat by sequestering Cuomo on HUD's top floor, so much the better...
...He beguiled the parents of the boys whose basketball teams he coached so he could 33 meet his prurient need...
...Shortly after Cuomo was first elected, Goldstein was appointed chairman of the State University Construction Fund, a lucrative patronage title...
...Oceanmark's Lynn Fenster recalls how the New York Group operated: "Shelley Goldstein would put out a call for money, and you would go...
...The allegations were that after Goldstein was denied part-ownership in a Manhattan build3 Arco is currently a "prime contractor" for HUD property management in Minnesota, D.C., Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and every state east of the Mississippi River...
...The New York investors agreed to put their stock in trust for five years and then give Oceanmark first dibs on buying it back...
...Some of Cuomo's fellow investors in Oceanmark are also prominent figures in an array of political and financial scandals...
...Their suspicions were aroused by the accidental discovery that what they called Cuomo's "New York Group," supposedly five major investors, consisted of at least 22, who among them controlled more than half of Oceanmark's stock...
...A HUD lawyer confirms that a Florida GOP official sent committee members a package alerting them to the Ocean-mark imbroglio...
...He campaigned hard for Walter Mondale's presidential bid, bringing in savvy media consultants...
...Cuomo's problems with the thrift were "previously published" in the October 1994 TAS, in connection with Oceanmark's efforts to obtain the secret supervisory agreement...
...The Secretary intends to pursue all legal avenues regarding this matter...
...I regret any personal hardship this purely business dispute may have caused Mr...
...As part of the 1996 settlement, Cuomo asked for another public apology...
...30 January /999 • The American Spectator The 1990 deal looked like a total victory for the Fensters...
...Now the Democratic supervisor of a Westchester town who holds a seat on HELP's advisory board, Feiner hardly seems out to get Cuomo...
...On more than one occasion a mother of one of these boys would come up to the office screaming and complaining about what Blutrich was doing...
...Indeed, just three weeks later Cuomo was nominated to replace Henry Cisneros as HUD secretary...
...TI-IL NEW YORK Eift0 P Heading up the New York Group was Sheldon Goldstein...
...The thrift alleged that Cuomo had used his authority to punish the Fensters and force a sale of Oceanmark, which, says Friedlander, would have incidentally produced a payoff on the non-voting stock held by the New York Group...
...What Ed Wachtel [a New York Group investor] and I decided to do is call for all monies, put it in the Savings Bank of Rockland County and draw the money as we need it but to have it in the bank...
...See On the Prowl, TAS, December 1997, and Correspondence, TAS, January 1998...
...You are also on notice that these allegations are ten years old, previously published, and now proven baseless by the Department of Justice, FBI, and Republican Senate...
...Paul Feiner, then a county legislator who was skeptical toward HELP, says Cuomo interrupted a telephone conversation one night in 1988 with an emergency breakthrough by an operator...
...No one had knowledge that [Blutrich] was involved in any of this s--t," says the source, who wishes to remain anonymous...
...Then she went a step further, announcing that Justice lawyers would defend Cuomo, Retsinas, and Riccobono in the latest Oceanmark suit...
...In 1996 Blutrich was exposed as a target in one of the largest-ever FBI fraud probes, and in November 1998 was convicted on 22 counts of racketeering, fraud, and money-laundering...
...If D'Amato wasn't going to bring up Oceanmark, neither was Cuomo—even if it meant a material omission on his nomination form...
...But there is no public record of any such statements...
...The following day the agency director claimed that the unorthodox move was in response to an emergency...
...In 1990 the Blutrich group approached Heritage and offered to invest $4 million...
...Soon after, Goldstein resigned as chairman of the State University Construction Fund for "personal reasons," according to a state spokesman, but presumably under pressure to do so after his embarrassing admissions...
...So the Fensters' lawyers hit them with the first of what has become a series of lawsuits...
...Asked why Cuomo did not divulge that he was investigated by federal banking regulators, HUD lawyers reply with word games...
...That he ultimately did sell seems to suggest he was troubled by doing business with an accused criminal...
...Jeffrey Fenster, Lynn's brother and partner, paints a similar portrait: "Shelley would gin up an investment and he would put out a call for money...
...But the real news was buried deep inside the lawsuit...
...The issue: Did Cuomo retaliate against Oceanmark by pressuring the federal agency charged with thrift oversight to close the S&L...
...In exchange for testifying and helping the FBI, Blutrich recently entered the federal Witness Protection Program —and a substantially discounted lifestyle...
...He has indicated he'd like to play a major role in Al Gore's New York campaign machine in z000, and Washington rumor holds that he's a strong contender for the second spot on a Gore ticket...
...It was actually worth only $700,000...
...For the next three years, the thrift tried without success to get a copy from the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), the new federal regulator set up after the savings-and-loan debacle...
...As a corporate lawyer in the Blutrich firm, he represented a group that in 1986 decided to invest in a family-owned, federally chartered savings and loan in North Miami Beach called Oceanmark...
...Presumably, it was only the prospect of public scrutiny that prompted Cuomo to finally withdraw his investment...
...But what astounded Lynn Fenster was the speed with which the settlement was approved...
...In addition to Oceanmark, Goldstein, Cuomo, and others in the New York Group shared extensive interests in two other financial institutions, Hudson United and the Savings Bank of Rockland County...
...But Cuomo failed to disclose a later suit, brought by the S&L itself, and settled only two months before his hearing...
...According to the agreement, these stockholders, "consistent with their desire to no longer be involved with Oceanmark, have already entered into an agreement for the sale of their stock...
...OTS recently withdrew its examiners from Oceanmark, and the Fensters' latest suit alleging an elaborate "Cuomo Conspiracy" seems strained at best...
...Blutrich recently pled guilty to looting an insurance company in Florida of some $237 million, some of which went into a business controlled by the Gambino crime family...
...Amazingly, however, the thrift never came up...
...During his father's years in the governor's mansion, young Cuomo refined his political touch...
...In a letter to TAS, the secretary's Fort Lauderdale attorneys wrote, "Many years ago, Secretary Cuomo practiced in a law firm with Mr...
...Cuomo did not have to sell his stake in L&M to become secretary...
...Evidently not...
...After...
...THE SON ALSO LUSE'S As the eldest son of Democratic lion Mario Cuomo, Andrew had one of the best educations in hands-on politics...
...Lucille Falcone, president and equal shareholder...
...A former partner of Cuomo's disputes this, however...
...I think that call, I'm sure, went out all over the city...
...Fenster, "was, 'Don't worry about a thing...
...Cuomo downplays his relationship with Blutrich...
...During the 1980's D'Amato was embroiled in a nasty HUD scandal of alleged favoritism, back-scratching, and campaign donor quid pro quos...
...Ultimately Monticciolo rolled and said D'Amato asked him to cover for the senator, but the case could not be made...
...Andrew Cuomo would like to play down his close rela29 tionship with Blutrich and dismiss it as a thing of the distant past, but financial disclosure documents show a relationship lasting practically to the day of Cuomo's Senate confirmation hearing as HUD secretary in 1997...
...Blutrich, along with several associates, was indicted the following month and has since begun to cooperate with the FBI...
...Cuomo's spokesmen now cite Reno's statement in rebutting the Oceanmark charges...
...Reagan White House aide Edwin Meese was investigated by an independent counsel for incomplete personal financial disclosures...
...In 1988 he quit his law practice to work full-time as president of HELP, a post he manned until joining HUD as assistant secretary for community planning and development in 1993...
...Generally a lot of people felt there were understandings that obviously they were going to try to stay out of each other's way," says a senior committee aide...
...And the secretary clearly grows anxious when asked about his past business associates and their affairs...
...But I would have preferred a little more compromising with the community...
...Blutrich, in a tax-credit syndication...
...There was a tremendous amount of pressure," recalls Feiner...
...And they ate us for lunch...
...Andrew Cuomo," read the release...
...THE OCLANNANkK BOG Notwithstanding such unpleasantness in the non-profit sector, it's one of Andrew's for-profit ventures that has now come back to haunt him...
...I know people in Atlanta and I can take care of this.'" '\N INDIPIINDLN1 COUNSLI_ ,ALL I I1S OWN Why did the settlement come so quickly...
...This seems to be borne out in an April 16, 1987 memo Oceanmark obtained from Cuomo's files...
...And that's when I became aware that the FBI was investigating Michael in connection with Scores and the Mob...
...But the Fensters were less inclined to throw rose petals on his progress...
...31 In early September 1998, the Fensters filed yet another suit, charging Cuomo, Retsinas, and current OTS Deputy Director Richard Riccobono with a "conspiracy" to ruin Oceanmark...
...The allegation...
...Cuomo was merely a witness in connection with an FHLBB examination of Oceanmark," they claim, and consequently not directly the subject of the inquiry...
...And he was largely responsible for staging one of his father's most memorable moments, the carefully crafted speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention...
...Arco was owned by Goldstein and managed by one of his two sons, both of whom belonged to the New York Group...
...Your publication has a history of printing false material regarding Mr...
...Explains their lawyer William Friedlander, "If Oceanmark said publicly that their claim had no merit, then everything we had negotiated for—which was the right to bring it again, to dismiss it without prejudice—would have gone out the flue...
...A constant theme in this convoluted legal history is the political well-being of Andrew Cuomo...
...His HUD lawyers wrote TAS that "The FBI, Department of Justice, and U.S...
...Senate Banking sources say the oversight had more to do with D'Amato protecting his own chairmanship than Andrew Cuomo's well-being...
...Making false statements to the FBI about pay-offs to a blackmailing mistress during a routine background check...
...Please, please let's put it together or some day it will come back and bite us...
...According to an analysis by Newsday, Goldstein, his family, and associates donated over 5102,000 to Mario Cuomo's gubernatorial campaigns from 1982 to 1989...
...He exploited the young boys he raped and molested...
...What the Fensters didn't know, however, was that the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) had separately investigated the New York Group and entered into a secret supervisory agreement on June 17, 1988...
...By the 1980's he was a millionaire several times over and had a long list of corporations to his name...
...The ombudsman considered the charge against Cuomo a political hot potato and passed it on to the Treasury Department's inspector general...
...A few years earlier, while a special assistant to his father, Andrew had amended the lease...
...Goldstein was also a chief client of Cuomo—and Blutrich and Falcone —at their law firm...
...In fact, he calls HELP a "total success" and says that "perhaps without the pressure it would have been impossible to get the complex built...
...The nominee should have listed that investigation, too, in answer to the second part of the question...
...The American Spectator • January 1999 Predictably, Heritage soon found itself in financial straits, and its directors became uneasy for their shareholders, z6,000 (75 percent) of whom were elderly...
...The nominee was President Clinton's choice for housing secretary, 41year-old Andrew Cuomo, who was to complete the questionnaire and return it before his confirmation hearing in January 1997...
...Several Reagan administration offiSAM DEALEY is TAS's assistant managing editor...
...This time the Fensters refused...
...But Andrew's real start came in 1982 when, at 24, he ran his father's winning gubernatorial campaign...
...I am one of io, 15, zo lawyers who represent him," he told the New York Times in December 1987...
...And if you didn't go—you almost didn't have a choice...
...A month later, accompanied by his wife Kerry Kennedy (whom he had married in 199o), one of their two daughters, his mother Matilda, sister Maria, and mother-in-law Ethel Kennedy, Cuomo sailed through an adulatory confirmation hearing notable only for what was not brought up: Oceanmark Federal Savings and Loan...
...The FBI launched its own investigation...
...The publication of these statements which you now know to be false and slanderous is actionable...
...So the investors illegally "borrowed" the rest from an escrow account at Blutrich's firm...
...The form was entitled "Statement for Completion by Presidential Nominees...
...I have always considered him an outstanding professional and count him as a friend...
...The American Spectator January 1999 cials were prosecuted in the Iran-contra matter for withholding information from Congress...
...Congressional and Justice probes were launched...
...D'Amato might have been expected to turn the hearing into a blood bath, given theample press coverage Oceanmark had received in the preceding decade...
...Heritage made a $1.5 million loan, a large chunk of which found its way into Blutrich's pockets...
...But the April memo from earlier that year suggests a closer relationship...
...I'll break every bone in your body," unless Feiner supported the project...
...Upon becoming HUD secretary, Cuomo recused himself from decisions directly involving Arco...
...Andrew's variant was a non-profit called Housing Enterprise for the Less Privileged (HELP), which provides transitional homes and services to the homeless...
...In that scam, Blutrich and others plotted with the then-chairman of the Orlando, Florida-based National Heritage Life Insurance Company to loot some $237 million from the company through inside loans and sham real-estate deals...
...Blutrich and participated with many investors, including Mr...
...The investors bought land near the Catskills in New York, then billed Heritage for millions more than they had paid...
...According to the Times, Goldstein told the SIC, "I threatened to ruin [the building owner] in the state of New York as a window contractor...
...After this brush with notoriety, Andrew left Albany in 1984 for Manhattan to join the staff of New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau...
...Young Cuomo is considered one of the Democratic Party's fastest-rising stars...
...By July 1996, Heritage's chairman pled guilty to the scam and received eight years in prison in exchange for his cooperation...
...In his memoirs the governor even wrote he would likely join the firm when he left public service...
...But it has looked at him for another reason...
...Upon leaving HUD, Monticciolo became the titular head of a Goldstein investment group that included these NewYork Group members...
...What's more, according to the Office of Government Ethics, only the Senate Banking committee would have evaluated Cuomo's questionnaire...
...If that's the case, you can bet the bank on one mud ball that neither candidate will be throwing...
...Perhaps because Oceanmark v. Cuomo, et al...
...The original owners of the thrift, the Fenster family, had lived in Florida for generations, and they soon concluded that they were losing control of the bank to outsiders who wanted to plunder its assets and discard the shell...
...Blutrich persuaded a cohort to pose as a real-estate appraiser, who valued the property at $2,346,000...
...The bank withdrew its suit...
...In late July 1998, even as FBI agents were still conducting interviews, the ombudsman revisited the complaint and concluded that OTS personnel might have been "plain-spoken," but they "did not act in a retaliatory manner...
...Blutrich's expensive tastes included a passion for boys' basketball...
...There was just one problem: They only had a million...
...It was a bad taste of government where things were being rammed through...
...The suit dragged on until 1996, when suddenly an armistice was reached...
...A report by the state comptroller noted that, "over the years, this project has been repeatedly rejected by past state governors and the New York State Thruway Authority as unwarranted based on the area's traffic needs and as simply a boon for private land developers...
...He got into the game at 16, helping in his father's first state-wide race...
...It went through like a rocket," she says...
...In 1985 he became a partner in the Park Avenue law firm of Blutrich Falcone & Miller, a haven for his dad's financial boosters...
...That's a total lie...
...Young Cuomo also got an education in hard-nosed politics...
...The lavishness included a Porsche, a yacht, and a $12,000 wristwatch, all of which he gave up as part of his plea agreement...
...32 January 1999 • The American Spectator ing rented to the state, he influenced the governor's office to cancel part of the lease...
...The agreement noted that "the FHLBB believes there is an issue as to whether there has been a violation of " control laws, but "is willing to forebear from the initiation of proceedings...
...It's sad that [Feiner's] mind would work in such a way," he said...
...When Oceanmark began receiving what its auditors saw as unusual demands concerning recapitalization requirements from OTS regulators, the Fensters appealed to the agency's ombudsman...
...In 1988, plans for a proposed thruway exit near Sterling Forest, the largest timberland tract in the New York City area, were scotched for economic and environmental reasons...
...Andrew himself was also one of the investors...
...is will you allow your publication to be used as a mouthpiece for the bogus and self-serving allegations made by Oceanmark Bank...
...He found "no information" showing Cuomo's influence...
...Also in 1985, Andrew took a leaf from the playbook of his future brother-in-law Joseph Kennedy, who had started his career by founding a non-profit corporation to provide low-cost heating fuel to the poor...
...One partner, Lucille Falcone, was Mario's chief fundraiser and, according to reports, Andrew's girlfriend...
...In court documents, one of Blutrich's former associates, Shalom Weiss, charges that during the heyday of the scam Blutrich dropped $50,000 per week "supporting a lavish lifestyle and expensive habits...
...I think it's even ethnically disparaging...
...Originally from Brooklyn, Goldstein moved to nearby Rockland County in the mid-fifties, where he set up shop as a real-estate developer and businessman...
...It later turned out that the Division of Housing and Community Renewal, the state agency that awarded the contract, had done so under a non-competitive bid...
...How serious is this...
...Cuomo, they said, had used his political power to pressure the others into harassing Oceanmark...
...oifi 34 January r 9 9 9 • The American Spectator...
...In a primary against the formidable New York City Mayor Ed Koch, Andrew led the campaign from 37 points down to a victory margin of four...
...Cuomo's zeal for philanthropy turned not-so-neighborly, however, when community legislators questioned the location and size of HELP projects, and when they attempted to slow what they saw as the non-deliberative, willy-nilly speed withwhich those project proposals were approved...
...One of the cases he listed, Smith v. Cuomo, et al., had been brought against him and others by the owner of a south-Florida savings and loan, alleging an illegal takeover attempt...
...In fact, Justice did conduct a preliminary investigation of Cuomo—the kind of inquiry that can lead to the appointment of an independent counsel...
...If any remained in their hands, stated the agreement, the stock "shall be donated to Oceanmark...
...The project had been pushed by Governor Cuomo...
...Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has his own special prosecutor, probing the question of false statements to Congress...
...The Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee had a form...
...Cuomo dismissed these allegations...
...In fact, along with Blutrich and Lucille Falcone, Cuomo was one of three general partners in L&M Associates, a tax-sheltered oil and gas investment...
...The result was a nasty face-off that led to the Justice inquiry...
...One of the things that Andrew said," recalls Ms...
...When questioned about his ties to Goldstein, Cuomo has distanced himself...
...Andrew Cuomo was his attorney in the deal...
...These eight investors at one time owned nearly half of the New York Group's shares in Oceanmark, according to documents from Cuomo's files...
...A broader review of Cuomo's involvements with Ocean-mark reveals serious questions of bank-regulation skirting...
...Finally, in 1994, the Fensters took Cuomo and his group to state court in Florida, charging them with "an illegal conspiracy to commit fraud" by failing to abide by the supervisory agreement...
...Within a month after we refused to do what Andrew demanded," says Friedlander, "the OTS was back on this bank like white on rice...
...Cuomo will not explain why he did not list the Ocean-mark suit among the court cases in which he had been a defendant...
...HUD lawyers even threatened a lawsuit when TAS submitted detailed questions...
...JAMES RING ADAMS is an investigative writer for TAS...
...Yet Reno's inquiry was narrowly tailored...
...The New York Group offered to settle this first suit in 1990, just an hour before the Fensters' legal team was set to take a deposition from Andrew...
...One question read: "Give the full details of any civil or criminal proceeding in which you were a defendant, or any inquiry or investigation by a Federal, State, or local agency in which you were the subject of an inquiry or investigation...
...Party members testified that the governor's aides threatened them with the loss of lucrative state jobs and patronage if the party's fight was not resolved in a way "acceptable" to the governor...
...Oceanmark received a copy of the federal order, and the New York Group agreed to exchange their stock for a largely worthless class of non-voting shares...
...E3L-1 FER_ LEI I UNSAID Less than a month after the ink dried on the second Ocean-mark settlement in November 1996, Andrew Cuomo was nominated for HUD secretary...
...Simple, no...
...And the first time you ever got worried about your money or didn't want to stay there, he would literally write you a check and you would never get called again...
...The case also puts a spotlight on some people who Cuomo perhaps wishes would remain in the dark...
...And although the partnership began many years ago (September 17, 1986), it was not until January 21, 1997—the day before his Senate confirmation hearing to become housing secretary —that that Cuomo quit doing business with Blutrich and sold his interest in L&M at a loss...
...It ceased to exist before he could do so...
...Cuomo's call was a tongue-lashing for Feiner's position on HELP...
...The director also told the New York Times that Arco was "recommended to me but by whom I don't remember...
...The uphill victories testified to Andrew's burgeoning campaign and management skills...
...According to the story, several sources "close to the situation" said Cuomo left the firm in 1988 in part because of Blutrich's behavior...
...The Fensters were especially impressed when Cuomo assured them he could clear up a residual problem with the OTS office in Atlanta, which supervises Florida thrifts...
...One of these communities was Westchester County, a largely affluent New York suburb whose liberal denizens were shocked at the prospect of a housing project in their backyards...
...John O'Connell, another New York Group investor, was also a member of Arco...
...What's more, Florida's Connie Mack also sat on the committee...
...The terms were that Cuomo and the other group members had to dispose of their Oceanmark stock within a year...
...There was speculation at the time that Cuomo might challenge the New York senator in his 1998 campaign, and that he posed a significant threat...
...revealed that in 1988, federal banking regulators investigated Cuomo and fellow investors for possible change-in-control violations...
...To the Fensters it seemed that members of the New York Group, even those no longer active in the case, had suddenly decided to smooth the path for Andrew's career...
...The chairman of the Senate committee charged with confirming Andrew was Alfonse D'Amato, whose hearty dislike for the Cuomos was well known—and generously reciprocated—after many years' rivalry in New York politics...
...But there do appear to have been violations of the supervisory agreement, which federal regulators have failed to pursue—specifically the divestiture of the investors' stock...
...Two years later, the insurance company collapsed, a S44o-million debacle...
...According to the SIC report, the three men "intervened in the internal affairs of the Liberal Party in order to obtain a resolution of the factional dispute...
...You are now on notice that the allegations...are false...
...In a letter to TAS, "HUD staff' wrote: The real question...
...Reno confirmed this on September 8, 1998, when she announced her determination that "there were no reasonable grounds to believe that further investigation [by a court-appointed special prosecutor] was warranted...
...More recent speculation predicts a possible run for retiring Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's seat in z000...
...You didn't have a say...
...The Blutrich group, meanwhile, had walked away with $93 million in laundered money, and sunk over two and a half times that much in bad deals...
...Another sham loan involved a Bronx land parcel owned by 4305 Associates, a two-person corporation formed in 1988 and named for the parcel's street address...
...After a preliminary investigation, Attorney General Janet Reno concluded that the standard for appointing an independent counsel had not been met...
...The "false material" in question, HUD staff has specified, was an item on Secretary Cuomo's press conferences...
...As part of the deal, Lynn Fenster and her family signed off on a press release apologizing to Andrew for "statements made in the heat of the moment...
...He did not...
Vol. 32 • January 1999 • No. 1
