Remember when the FBI stormed City Hall, taking computers and leaving startled employees behind?
That was almost one year ago – and since that time nearly everyone involved with the GroWest Inc. investigation has confirmed their initial cooperation with the secretive federal agency.
But more recently – as the roiling summer speculation about GroWest recedes further into the rearview – the FBI is nowhere to be found.
No charges. No indictments.
Not even the basic acknowledgement that they are working on the case.
“Our policy is that we can’t comment on the existence of investigations,” said M.D. McDonald, an FBI spokesman who declined further comment.
The FBI became involved with GroWest, a West Utica-based nonprofit housing agency, after the city hired private attorney J.K. Hage III to probe possible criminal wrongdoings there. The FBI later issued subpoenas to both GroWest and City Hall seeking records dating back to 2000.
Mayor David Roefaro, who once said he expected the results of the FBI’s probe to become public by the end of 2010, now says it could be “a couple” of years.
He first said he interacts with them occasionally, before revising that and saying the contact with the city is through the Corporation Counsel’s Office.
“I know they’re working on the case,” he said. “It’s going to take time. The FBI, they don’t move the quickest.”
But the agency’s recent silence has some stakeholders wondering if they will ever be heard from again.
“I think maybe it was wishful thinking,” said attorney Mark Wolber, an attorney who represents former GroWest executive director John Denelsbeck. “The city was hoping the FBI would become involved, because that would support the theory that there was major wrongdoing.”
Hage probe
Hage’s law firm was hired last year by the city to investigate GroWest and how federal funds are administered by the city. The firm eventually was paid $252,555.
In return, Hage’s firm kick started a slew of civil lawsuits against former GroWest employees and contractors and delivered a 120-page report on the agency and the city.
Hage & Hage LLC also retooled a five-year plan the city must submit to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The plan had been rejected twice before finally being accepted.
When he was working for the city, Hage said several times that the FBI’s investigation would take substantially longer than the city’s.
But Roefaro said the final February check cut to Hage would be the end of their working relationship.
“I have not had any contact from the FBI in quite some time, and the city has for some time now assumed all responsibility for all civil actions,” Hage said.
The lawsuits
In September, the city filed complaints in each of those cases, the most recent activity filed in the Oneida County Clerk’s Office. Despite phone messages left over the course of several days, city First Assistant Corporation Counsel Charles Brown, who is working on the cases, could not be reached.
In at least one case, though, the Denelsbeck lawsuit, the city has missed several deadlines to fill in the specifics of the lawsuit. It has been given one final chance with state Supreme Court Judge Samuel Hester or it risks being thrown out.
Denelsbeck initially was approached by the FBI and spoke with officials from the agency, but it was only once and he never heard from the FBI again, Wolber said.
The story is the same for Dermody, Burke & Brown, an accounting firm named in a GroWest-related civil suit.
The firm, which once did annual audits for GroWest, handed over its documents to the FBI months ago and hasn’t heard anything since.
“I’ve heard nothing, not a word,” said Madelyn Hornstein, Dermody, Burke & Brown’s executive director, who said she believes that the firm acted properly. “No news is good news.”
Original article at uticaod.com
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