Today's Key Brunogate Story

by: phillip anderson

Thu Jan 11, 2007 at 10:39:10 AM EST

Bruno Son Emerges as Key Link in Father's Circle of Connections

As part of their investigation into the business dealings of Senator Bruno, federal authorities are examining a series of land deals involving Kenneth Bruno, who has emerged as a nexus between his father and a wealthy businessman, Jared E. Abbruzzese, whose financial ties to Senator Bruno are under scrutiny.

The younger Mr. Bruno was instrumental in persuading the wife of Mr. Abbruzzese to pay $90,000 for almost 12 acres on Pond View Way from a partnership involving Senator Bruno, according to an owner of the partnership. Weeks before that November 2004 deal was completed, a Canadian racetrack owner that had hired Kenneth Bruno as a lobbyist formed an advocacy group with Mr. Abbruzzese that would urge an overhaul of the state's horse racing industry, an issue in which Senator Bruno has been playing a major role.

Kenneth Bruno's involvement in recruiting buyers for the partnership's land, including Mr. Abbruzzese's wife, was critical to reviving a moribund project in which Senator Bruno had a 25 percent stake, according to James D. Featherstonhaugh, a lawyer and lobbyist who also owned 25 percent of the partnership, the First Grafton Corporation.

Mr. Featherstonhaugh said that records about Kenneth Bruno's involvement in the land deals were among reams of documents that the partnership turned over to the authorities under a grand jury subpoena for information about Senator Bruno's involvement in First Grafton, which was dissolved in May 2005.

...

Kenneth Bruno's involvement with the Abbruzzeses represents an important link between Mr. Abbruzzese and Senator Bruno, in part because the son was lobbying for a company allied with Mr. Abbruzzese at the time.

Kenneth Bruno resigned as district attorney to join the law firm Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker as a lobbyist in June 2003. Among the clients he brought to the firm was the Magna Entertainment Corporation, a racetrack owner based in Aurora, Ontario, according to a firm spokesman.

In October 2004, Magna and Mr. Abbruzzese were among the 10 founders of Friends of New York Racing, which later called for awarding the state's horse racing franchise to a private business. When Mr. Bruno left the law firm in March 2005, he took Magna with him as a client of his new lobbying firm, Albany Strategies. He ceased lobbying in January 2006 to focus on his law practice.

Magna and Mr. Abbruzzese later joined in forming the Empire Racing Associates, a consortium of gambling and racing interests that is bidding to get the franchise.

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