Also see: Dirty DiMasi
"DiMasi's ally gets scrutiny from AG; Coakley starts inquiry into accountant's work; Grand jury questioning financial transactions" by Andrea Estes and Stephen Kurkjian, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent | October 21, 2008
The state attorney general has launched an investigation into the financial dealings of House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi's personal accountant, according to multiple government officials, in a move that escalates the level of scrutiny of the profits and influence of DiMasi's close cadre of friends.
A grand jury convened by Attorney General Martha Coakley is initially focused on Richard Vitale, DiMasi's accountant and former campaign treasurer, who received large payments from business interests seeking contracts and legislation on Beacon Hill, said the government officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity. At the time, Vitale had given DiMasi an unusual $250,000 third mortgage on his North End condominium at a below-market rate.
Politically, Coakley's investigation comes at a sensitive time for DiMasi, who has repeatedly sought to quell challenges to his authority in the House of Representatives as questions of his ethics - and word of resulting investigations - swirl around Beacon Hill.
Coakley became involved in the probe after Secretary of State William F. Galvin determined in May that Vitale had collected $60,000 from a group of ticket brokers who were pushing legislation that would deregulate their industry. Vitale refused to report the payments as lobbying fees, prompting Galvin to refer the matter to Coakley for possible criminal prosecution.
Since that referral, the state inspector general reported two weeks ago that Vitale had collected $600,000 from Burlington software company
One payment, for $500,000, was sent to Vitale on the same day the state wired Cognos $13 million for a contract. If the same-day payment was a so-called success fee, it would violate a state prohibition on such payments to lobbyists. The FBI, according to state and federal officials, has made some initial inquiries into the awarding of two contracts to Cognos, a $4.5 million education contract in 2006 and a $13 million statewide technology contract in 2007.
Last week, Alan Cote, head of Galvin's Public Records Division, wrote Cognos's lawyer asking him to make sure Cognos does not "remove, destroy, or otherwise manipulate any record or document pertaining in any way to lobbying or lobbyists In Massachusetts."
The investigations follow Globe reports that detailed how Vitale and other close associates of DiMasi's received large payments from Cognos. DiMasi has denied interceding on Cognos's behalf and has said he was unaware of what his friends were doing.
But a key state official has told investigators that she believed that DiMasi wanted the $13 million contract to go to Cognos. An emergency bond bill that paid for the $13 million contract sailed through the Legislature in a week, and money for the education contract was provided in a House budget amendment.
Translation: The 'liberal looter" DiMasi is ALSO A LIAR!!!!!
In addition, several state officials have said Cognos sales agent, Joseph Lally, boasted that he was friends with DiMasi and could get financing for Cognos contracts inserted into state budgets.
The inspector general's office also found that DiMasi's former law associate Steven Topazio was on Cognos's lobbying payroll for two years. Topazio, a personal injury and criminal defense lawyer who shares a downtown law office with DiMasi and shares income with DiMasi in the form of referral fees he pays to the speaker, collected a $5,000-a-month retainer from April 2005 until March 2007, according to a state official. Topazio's payments stopped the same month the Legislature and governor approved an emergency bond bill that paid for the $13 million technology contract. --more--"
Yeah, but we need the income tax to pay for services!
