Henry J. Stern
July 17, 2007

Yesterday we sent you an anonymously sourced New York Post article alleging that, while Thomas DiNapoli was Comptroller, someone had removed documents dealing with investments of millions of dollars by New York State pension funds which were made by former Comptroller Alan Hevesi.
 
Our headline was: "2 PROSECUTORS SCRAMBLE OVER HEVESI'S CARCASS, HUNTING BENEFICIARIES OF POLITICAL LARGESSE".   The two prosecutors are Albany County District Attorney David Soares, before whom Hevesi pleaded guilty to an E felony on February 7, and State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
 
The pursuit of justice continues today on page 7 of the Post in another story by State Editor Fredric U. Dicker. Headlined DiNAPOLI FINGERS EX-AIDE AS 'DEFILER' ,    Comptroller DiNapoli goes all out to refute the story that the possibly incriminating documents disappeared during his tenure, which began five months ago. "It is apparent that former Comptroller Hevesi and others on his staff engaged in unethical, irresponsible and possibly criminal activity."

Dicker's story continues, quoting DiNapoli: 'We will continue to fully cooperate with law-enforcement officials to ensure that any wrongdoing by the Hevesi administration is uncovered and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
 
"DiNapoli said missing records documenting the investment of tens of millions of dollars of pension-fund monies and the fees that were paid for managing the funds -- first disclosed in yesterday's Post -- disappeared from the desk of Deputy Comptroller for Pension Investsment David Loglisci, who resigned from his $201,000-a-year job May 10.
 
"Shortly after Loglisci's resignation, my staff discovered certain records were missing from Loglisci's desk," DiNapolii said.  "We immediately informed District Attorney Soares and began work to recover these documents.  DiNapoli spokesman Dennis Tompkins said Loglisci was "the last one we were aware of who knew where these documents were."
 
The story is further advanced this afternoon in the Daily News blog.  DiNAPOLI BLALMES EX-OSC AIDE FOR MISSING DOCUMENTS, SWIPES AT CUOMO. The use of a blog by major newspapers is a remarkable advance in journalism.   When news breaks during the 24-hour daily publishing cycle, some papers now put it out immediately on their blogsites, without waiting for the next edition of the newspaper to come out in the morning.   This can be done for competitive reasons - a newspaper which has discovered a major story puts it out right away, and if they are ahead of the other dailies, people will turn to their blogsites for recent news.

The use of  instant internet technology for newspaper blogs enables corrections, modifications and updates to be added to  the story during the day, rather than having to wait until the following morning.  It makes it easier for politicians to respond to allegations, since they no longer have to wait until the next day to do so; it shortcuts the news cycle.  It also means lies and falsehoods can be refuted sooner.    It does not particularly help attackers, because they can already tie their allegations to the news cycle.  Instant response certainly speeds the pace of a campaign.
 
 Bloggers were very helpful in the prompt exposure of the forgery in the 2004 Presidential campaign of a letter, purportedly by a commanding officer, chastising the young George W. Bush for his failure to attend or complete his training in the Texas Air National Guard, the military organization he joined in order to avoid serving in Vietnam.  Although Bush deserves criticism for his actions, as well as the favorable treatment he received, the President was in the end helped by the fact that the allegations against him, aired by Dan Rather on CBS, had been typed on an electric typewriter which had not yet been invented in 1973, the year in which the documents were purportedly typed.
 
The Hevesi story actually began this Sunday in a detailed and revealing story we erroneously overlooked.  Starting on p27 (in the Metro section), and jumping to p30, the article by Danny Hakim and Mary Williams Walsh is headlined HEVESI'S SONS AND AIDES FACE PENSION FUNDD INVESTIGATION.  It is dated ALBANY, July 13, which means it was written on Friday and held for the Sunday edition. Hakim and Walsh reveal a pattern of loans and contributions which certainly create the appearance of favoritism on a grand scale.  Whether or not this conduct is illegal is another issue, that will be initially be decided by prosecutors if they decide to bring the facts to a grand jury in order to seek an indictment.
 
The Times story is the definitive account of the scandal, up until the time the issue of the missing documents arose.  You should link to it before it is no longer accessible.  You cannot understand the scope of the wrongdoing alleged here unless you read their account.   The allegations are so far relatively uncontested on the factual level.   The issue is whether the generosity of the donors to the relatives and the aides of Comptroller Hevesi  was, or was not, a factor in their receiving business or investments for themselves and their clients from the New York State Employees Retirement Fund.  If you are over the age of six, you should be able to form an opinion on that issue.
 
The latest squabble finds Comptroller DiNapoli sparring with Attorney General Cuomo.  The issue is who leaked the information about the investigation and the missing documents to the Times (for the Sunday story) and the Post (for its Monday 'exclusive').   Read DiNapoli's statement on this, linked to in paragraph seven of this story.

The News blog continues with other juicy bits about Logisci, last custodian of the missing documents.  A sample: "Logisci traveled with Hevesi - flying first-class on the taxpayers' dime -- on at least one trip to Israel, in which Hevesi made numerous investments."
 
Cuomo has political reasons, not necessarily motives, for wanting to downgrade DiNapoli.  They both may aspire to the Governorship (Cuomo certainly does; he ran for it in 2002), and the presence of two Italian-American candidates would not be helpful to either of them.  Of course, any difference between them in 2007 is based on principles of public administration on which they may differ.   Cuomo has made a good start in his first six months, but he can mess it up if he engages in leaking and scrapping with other public officials.  We are not saying he did that, and we are not saying he didn't, but the closer one gets to the edge, the easier it is to fall off .  And don't forget that old chestnut, Rule 5: "Where there's smoke, there's fire."
 

#394  7.17.07  1085wds