Cuomo wins round in pension fight Temporary restraining orders denied as tool against investigation
By RICK KARLIN, Capitol bureau First published: Saturday, May 24, 2008
ALBANY -- Attorney General Andrew Cuomo won the first round Friday in a court fight spawned by his ongoing probe of alleged pension fund abuse, beating back an attempt by Albany lawyer James Roemer to get a temporary restraining order to stop the inquiry.
Roemer, who is representing four attorneys under investigation by Cuomo and state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, argued the probe was harming his clients and others under investigation. But Cuomo's counsel, Henry Greenberg, successfully argued before Albany County State Supreme Court Justice Gerald Connolly that restraining orders are not typically used to stop state agencies from conducting investigations. "They are asking in effect to stop two state agencies, two heads of state agencies ... to stop these investigations in their tracks," said Greenberg, adding later, "I've never seen anything like it." Roemer filed suit last week against Cuomo and DiNapoli, who have been conducting separate but parallel probes of lawyers for school districts and other government entities around the state. These lawyers have been listed as employees to earn taxpayer-funded pension credits -- a practice Cuomo and DiNapoli say is wrong. They say the lawyers are independent contractors who are ineligible for the benefits. But Roemer, who himself collects a pension from his work as a municipal lawyer, has maintained that past comptrollers knowingly allowed the practice. The investigation by Cuomo and DiNapoli is wide-ranging. Earlier this month, the Times Union reported Albany County judge Stephen Herrick earned pension credits while he served as a lawyer for the Albany school district. On Friday, Roemer noted Cuomo has subpoenaed Herrick, Roemer and others whose pension credits are now in question. Additionally, last week Roemer was fired by Sullivan County, which had used him in labor contract negotiations. He suggested publicity surrounding the pension affair was hurting the reputations of those being probed. "Much has been written in the press because that's where this case has been publicized so far," he said. "We think this (court) is the format where issues in this case need to be decided, not in the court of public opinion."
Just who is entitled to a state pension? First published: Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Kudos to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for his diligent and overdue investigation of the pension abuses in New York state. Unlike columnist Fred LeBrun, I am not the least bit ambivalent about these abuses by lawyers and agree with Cuomo that it is quite simple to determine if a person is an employee or simply contracting with an agency to perform a service, a la 1099 not W2.
Are the plumbers, electricians or carpenters routinely hired by the school districts to perform services next in line for pensions?
Someone is going to run for office....someone is going to run for office......who who who???? As for the pension thing--kudos to you....but, you have already made yours......show me a much bigger picture......Lotto anyone????
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Cuomo gets more lawyer pension settlements Two firms and their attorneys give up credits for state retirement
By RICK KARLIN, Capitol bureau First published: Wednesday, June 4, 2008
ALBANY -- Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday added two more law firms and their lawyers to the list of attorneys who have paid settlements and given up public pension credits as a result of his probe of abuses in the state retirement system.
The settlements, totaling $235,000, stem from Cuomo's investigation into lawyers and other professionals who were improperly listed as school or BOCES employees when they should have been considered independent contractors. Cuomo and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli have been looking into the long-standing practice this year. Settling the case were the Syracuse-based firm of Ferrara, Fiorenza, Larrison, Barrett and Reitz; the New York City firm of Aiello and Cannick, and Long Island attorney Gilbert Henoch. At the Syracuse firm, three lawyers, Marc Reitz, Norman Gross and Henry Sobota, have agreed to forgo pension credits with the Madison Oneida BOCES. The firm will pay $100,000. The Times Union earlier reported that in 2002 Reitz lost a lawsuit in state Supreme Court in Albany County in which he tried to keep pension rights through the state Teachers Retirement System. More recent settlements involve pension credits from the State and Local Retirement System. Lawyers at Aiello and Cannick, Cuomo said, were improperly listed as employees at the Mount Vernon school district and will forgo their pension credits as well as pay $75,000. And Long Island lawyer Gilbert Henoch had already collected more than $50,000 in pension benefits through earlier work at the Hempstead and East Meadow districts. He'll give up future payments and pay $60,000. Cuomo made the announcement with Long Island lawmakers who are preparing legislation to prevent future pension abuses. The attorney general said he believes such actions should be treated as felonies, which would make it easier to bring criminal charges. No criminal charges have been brought so far. Cuomo last month reached similar settlements with the Buffalo-based Hodgson Russ law firm, where lawyers were listed as employees with western New York BOCES, and with Maureen Harris, a member of the state Public Service Commission. Harris previously obtained a year's worth of pension credits when she was listed as an employee of the Hamilton Fulton Montgomery BOCES while she was with Albany's Girvin & Ferlazzo law firm. The Hodgson Russ lawyers were not accruing pension credits, however. Rick Karlin can be reached at 454-5758 or by e-mail at rkarlin@timesunion.com.
Someone is going to run for office....someone is going to run for office......who who who???? As for the pension thing--kudos to you....but, you have already made yours......show me a much bigger picture......Lotto anyone????
SHOW ME THE MONEY TRAIL................................
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
CAPITOL Law firms settle pension fraud case State says attorneys can’t collect benefit The Associated Press
Lawyers and partners at two more law firms will stop collecting state pension benefits for serving public school district clients. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday that members of the Girvin & Ferlazzo firm in Albany and the Hogan, Sarzynski, Lynch, Surowka & DeWind fi rm in Binghamton agreed to end the practice and return pension payments and accrued credits. The lawyers didn’t admit any guilt and Cuomo didn’t charge them with crimes. The arrangements have long been approved by auditors and the state Education Department, but are now being challenged by Cuomo and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. With $500,000 from Girvin & Ferlazzo and $100,000 from the Hogan firm, law firms from Buffalo to Long Island have agreed to pay $900,000 and rescind pension credits as part of the investigation. Cuomo said M. Cornelia Cahill, a lawyer who was a partner in the Girvin firm and didn’t settle, could face further investigation. She is married to state Court of Claims Presiding Judge Richard Sise, whose court hears lawsuits against the state. Cuomo says she was listed as a school employee but never worked on labor matters, the service for which she was listed. Cahill, a public finance attorney representing schools and governments, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The state Senate plans to introduce a bill Wednesday that would outlaw public pension benefits for contracted private sector professionals. Cuomo spokesman John Milgrim said Cuomo is working on a compromise between the Senate and Assembly that could be voted on by the scheduled end of the legislative session next week.
DiNapoli pulls pension credits from 5 lawyers Attorney for Duanesburg schools among those cited
By RICK KARLIN, Capitol bureau Tuesday, July 22, 2008
ALBANY - State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has revoked or rescinded pension credits for five more lawyers, all working for upstate school districts, as part of his ongoing review of whether hundreds of attorneys have actually earned those state-funded benefits.
Among those who have lost pension credits was Paul Callahan, who worked part time for the Duanesburg school district until he retired last month.
The comptroller, as well as Attorney General Andrew Cuomo have for several months now been reviewing the records of hundreds of lawyers who work for schools or other government entities.
They say many of these lawyers were listed as employees when they were actually contract workers and thus shouldn't qualify for lucrative state pensions.
One of the lawyers who is losing credits in Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s latest roundup of supposedly improper pensions is Paul Callahan who earned pension credits for his work at the Duanesburg school system, located outside of Schenectady. Callahan, though, may be better known not as a school lawyer but the attorney who defended serial killer Mary Beth Tinning, pictured above. Tinning was convicted in 1987 of killing all of her nine babies in one of the nation’s most notorious cases of infanticide and remains in prison.
Wow MT....I did not know that he was involved in the Tinning case!! I had no idea!!!!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Ruling clears way for Cuomo in pension case Attorney general can go ahead with subpoena of retired school lawyer
By RICK KARLIN First published: Saturday, September 13, 2008 Capitol bureau
ALBANY -- A state court has upheld Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's subpoena against the retired school lawyer the official contends wrongfully collected more than $700,000 in pension benefits.
Cuomo can now move forward with his subpoena against retired Binghamton lawyer John Hogan, according to a decision issued Friday by Gerald Connolly, acting state Supreme Court justice in Albany County.
"The Attorney General has the authority under Executive Law to investigate allegations of possible violations of the law and this authority encompasses the ability to serve subpoenas," Connolly wrote in rejecting the request by Hogan's lawyer, James Roemer, to quash the subpoena.
Connolly's decision, said Cuomo spokesman John Milgrim, ratifies the legal theory Cuomo is using in pursuing the case.
The court quashed a separate subpoena against Roemer himself, but suggested Cuomo could seek another subpoena using a different time frame. Milgrim said that would likely happen.
Roemer is spearheading a legal battle against Cuomo's sweeping pension crackdown. Roemer had argued, along with other points, that Hogan shouldn't be subpoenaed because pension fraud investigations are basically the state comptroller's responsibility.
He also argued that the subpoena was overly broad, a contention also rejected by Connolly.
Roemer said he hadn't digested Connolly's decision and couldn't immediately comment. It was too early to say if he would appeal the decision against Hogan.
Roemer, who himself collects a state pension, is suing the attorney general in an attempt to stop the investigation.
Starting last winter, Cuomo, as well as Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, began examining the pensions of dozens of school district lawyers accruing or collecting taxpayer-funded pensions.
Both Cuomo and DiNapoli say the lawyers shouldn't receive such benefits since they were actually independent contractors for the school districts rather than employees.
Since then, the pension review has extended to other government agencies ranging from sewer districts to towns and villages.
Cuomo has said there are potentially hundreds of lawyers collecting handsome pensions they don't really deserve.
Roemer, though, contends many of the pensions are proper since the comptroller's office for years has known of and approved the payments. Rick Karlin can be reached at 454-5758 or by e-mail at rkarlin@timesunion.com
ALBANY Attorneys to return $300,000 to state BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
The wife and brother of a prominent state judge have reached an agreement with the Attorney General’s Office that will require them to repay more than $300,000 to settle allegations they improperly received state pension benefits. M. Cornelia Cahill, the wife of state Court of Claims Presiding Judge Richard Sise, and John “Jack” Sise are the most recent attorneys from Girvin & Ferlazzo to be sanctioned under a joint investigation launched last spring by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. To date, Cuomo said, the public pension investigation has returned $1.24 million in settlements and involved more than 65 attorneys across the state. Cahill’s settlement requires her to pay the state $270,000 she received while working as a labor relations specialist for the Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery BOCES, even though there was no record of her serving in such a capacity while employed at the law firm in Albany. Cahill will also forfeit any claim to contributions she made to the pension system, according to the settlement announced Monday. John Sise, Cahill’s brother-in-law, will pay $35,000 to the state — including $19,000 to Siena College in Loudonville — as restitution for retirement credits he wrongfully received, according to the attorney general. While serving as a counsel to Girvin & Ferlazzo, John Sise was placed on the BOCES payroll so that he would appear eligible to receive benefits during his fi rst two years working as Siena’s director of planned giving. “For these two lawyers, the public school system and its benefi ts of employment were perverted for their own benefit,” Cuomo said in a statement. “Both, along with other members of the Girvin firm, engaged in a scheme to convert the benefits of public employment into personal benefits for private lawyers,” Cuomo said. Cuomo said Cahill requested to be placed on the BOCES payroll as a labor relations specialist in 1998, but only performed minimal services for some school districts until leaving her law firm in 2006. During that time, Cuomo said, Cahill never worked as an employee of BOCES or represented the organization in labor relations. Cahill, a former partner of Girvin & Ferlazzo, came under scrutiny in April after Cuomo and DiNapoli determined members of the fi rm had been improperly accumulating pension credits. Among the five partners cited in the probe, four were removed from the state retirement system. Girvin & Ferlazzo settled those cases in June, agreeing to pay the state $500,000 and rescind pension credits for the four attorneys. At the time, Cahill declined to settle with the state, which then threatened her with further investigation. Cahill now serves as a partner with Hisock & Barclay, and leads the fi rm’s financial services practice group, according to the company’s Web site. Her attorney, Daniel French, said Cahill was pleased to have resolved the matter, but asserted she never received any unearned compensation from BOCES or payments from the state pension. “It is important to note that at all times BOCES received the services for which it contracted and that Ms. Cahill never received any state employment benefits,” he said. Cuomo said that John Sise, who worked with Girvin & Ferlazzo between 1999 until 2001, asked Cahill and firm partners James Girvin and Kristine Lanchantin to list him as a BOCES employee so that he could bypass Siena’s two-year waiting period for eligibility in the college’s tax-deferred retirement plan. By listing his work with BOCES, he was able to show prior membership in a similar plan, thereby satisfying this waiting period, Cuomo said. Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery BOCES Superintendent Geoff Davis said BOCES is pleased with the outcome of the case, but will conduct its own probe into whether the organization paid for services that were not rendered. He said BOCES is now working with other attorneys to determine if they should seek to recoup their costs. “These two cases are very different [from] the initial [Girvin & Ferrlazo] cases,” Davis said. “There is an allegation here the work was not done.” Thomas O’Connor, an attorney representing John Sise, characterized his client as “a man of enormous personal and professional integrity.” He said Sise never intended to do anything improper, but decided to settle the case because of the legal cost involved in defending himself.
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