Attorney general to look at BOCES
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s investigation of improper payment of contractors has grown once again, as Mr. Cuomo’s office has expanded the pension fraud investigation to include every Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) in the state, including the Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES, of which the Katonah-Lewisboro School District is a member. There are 37 such boards in New York.
“We have reason to believe that some BOCES may have unclean hands in this situation and there may have been financial benefits for the BOCES to list professionals as employees instead of as independent consultants,” said Mr. Cuomo in a press release. “There appears to be a chronic fraud that has occurred across New York state for many years, and we will work until we get to the bottom of it.”
Mr. Cuomo’s investigation already encompasses school districts and local governments across the state, and his office has subpoenaed lawyers and law firms on Long Island and upstate.
The investigation was kicked off by the revelation by Newsday that a former lawyer for the law firm Ingerman Smith LLP, Lawrence Reich, allegedly received full-time salaries from five school districts on Long Island at the same time, allowing him to earn a large pension from the state retirement system. Ingerman Smith is the legal counsel for the Katonah-Lewisboro School District, although school board President Peter Breslin has said Mr. Reich was never involved in any issue connected to the district.
Ingerman Smith “severed its relationship” with Mr. Reich last October, according to a statement issued by the law firm, and no other member of the firm had been reported as any school district’s employee.
On Friday, April 25, the state comptroller announced that a second lawyer’s pension had been suspended — Long Island attorney Albert D’Agostino — while Mr. D’Agostino’s service credits from three school districts, two local governments and Nassau County were being investigated.
Also, the comptroller’s office has revoked the pensions of four attorneys who had worked for Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery BOCES.
