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CAPITOL
FBI subpoenas unions for ties to Bruno

    Federal investigators have filed subpoenas for business records from labor unions that have directed millions of dollars to companies that Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno has worked for, according to court documents.
    The Times Union of Albany reports that FBI agents served the unions’ pension and welfare fund leaders last week, seeking records involving Wright Investors Service of Milford, Conn., and its holding company, Winthrop Corp.
    Bruno worked for the companies for roughly a decade — from about the time he took his leadership role in the state Senate, until he resigned in December.
    Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Coombe of the Albany office, signed the subpoenas, which also seek any union records involving Bruno and his Brunswick consulting company, Capital Business Consultants.
    Coombe declined to comment to the Times Union Saturday.
    James Long, a lawyer for Laborers Local 190, said the group received a subpoena on Wednesday. Local 190 has until Feb. 14 to produce the records. Long said the group will cooperate.
    Bruno is the state’s top Republican elected official. He acknowledged he was under investigation by the FBI in December 2006 — at which point the investigation had already been under way for six months.
    Bruno has maintained that he has done nothing wrong, and no one has been charged in the case.
    The grand jury probe stems from an earlier inquiry by the state lobbying commission into the relationship between Bruno and Albany-area businessman Jared Abbruzzese.
    Abbruzzese, who contributed more than $70,000 since 2000 to New York Republicans, has made corporate jets available to Bruno and hired him as a consultant.
    Bruno worked as a business development agent for Wright, or Winthrop Corp. He and the company parted ways at the end of last year, saying the public has focused too much on Bruno’s employment.
    Bruno spokesman John McArdle declined to tell the paper whether the Senator had been served a subpoena or whether the FBI had requested information about his work with Wright, Winthrop or Capital Business Consulting.
    “Sen. Bruno has cooperated fully and completely with the inquiry and ended his employment with Wright Investment last year,” McArdle told the Times Union on Saturday.
    A Wright spokesman declined to say if the firm had received subpoenas.
    A statement issued by the company said: “Bruno has assured us ... that relevant authorities concluded that his business relationship with us posed no substantive confl ictof-interest issues.”
    Wright handles pension investments for several labor unions.

Dont think any other legislators are squeeky clean---who are the arbitors???