| The Albany Times Union has some answers, lots of 'em, actually. James M. Odato has a fantastic piece from this weekend that fills in many gaps in our knowledge of Bruno's BFF. It ain't pretty.
Bruno friend draws scrutiny from FBI
Senate majority leader, business associate have tangled relationship
But now Abbruzzese, 52, is being scrutinized in an FBI probe that has found he paid Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees. Interviews and a review of court documents reveal that his business dealings have included accusations of fraud and deceit, and even a multimillion-dollar judgment that threatened to take his home until that ruling was reversed.
In recent years the entrepreneur has been dogged by complaints of deceiving stockholders and fleecing investors. None of those complaints has ever been sustained in court.
...
Flashy and outspoken, the businessman is described by associates as a "close friend" and business associate of Bruno, the state's most powerful Republican politician. But beyond friendship, their relationship is a tangled web of public money and private enterprise that has now drawn the attention of law enforcement. |
| It also seems that Mr. Abbruzzese has left a wake of rather unhappy folks in his wake...
In one 2002 lawsuit in Texas, a jury found Abbruzzese liable for a $9 million fraud, but an appeals court overturned the verdict -- and then Abbruzzese, without admitting guilt, agreed to settle the matter out of court. The settlement occurred shortly after a $5 million judgment was filed against Abbruzzese in state Supreme Court in Albany.
In those two related cases, Thomas Dixon and David E. Webb, two executives of a company acquired by Abbruzzese's CAI Wireless, an Albany-based telecommunications venture, alleged in federal court in Texas that Abbruzzese deceived them by persuading them to forfeit stock options Abbruzzese allegedly knew could soon become extremely valuable. They said he persuaded them to quit in 1999 and take a modest severance package just as WorldCom Inc. was preparing to acquire all the stock of CAI Wireless.
What a guy, eh?
In another recent case, Abbruzzese was sued in Delaware by the largest stockholder of Motient Corp., a wireless mobile data service business, for allegedly steering millions of dollars in business to other businesses he controlled, including his own Albany investment service and Tejas Inc., a small Texas investment advisory service whose shares are publicly traded.
The stockholder alleged in the suit that Tejas provided Abbruzzese with at least 100,000 shares of Tejas stock for delivering business to Tejas while shareholders of Motient were not made aware of that conflict of interest. At the time, Abbruzzese had left his role as a director at Motient. He became a director of Tejas, which acquired his Albany company.
Bruno purchased stock in Tejas a couple of years ago, according to a public document. The purchase came around the time other records show Bruno used Abbruzzese's airplane and occasionally flew with Abbruzzese.
...
n that case, the suing stockholder alleged that Motient was being managed by an associate of Abbruzzese, Gary Singer, who was supposed to be banned for life from serving as an officer of a publicly traded company. A convicted felon, Singer had served prison time for fraud, money laundering and racketeering.
...Abbruzzese, who was chairman of CAI, was accused by stockholders in a lawsuit of selling his stock while pumping up the company to investors with misrepresentations, omissions and unrealistically positive public announcements. The company later sought protection from creditors in bankruptcy court and merged with MCI WorldCom Inc.
This is our Senate Majority Leader's BFF here, folks. This is the type of person who Joe Bruno "consults" for.
Oh, and remember that little company that Joe Bruno has no "personal ties" to? The one he has steered buckets of public money towards?
Abbruzzese also owned about a 15 percent stake in Evident Technologies Inc., a high-tech startup business based in a historic building in downtown Troy, and was Evident's co-chairman. In 2003 and 2004, Bruno personally earmarked two $250,000 grants in discretionary state funds to the company through Empire State Development Corp. ESDC, the economic development agency controlled by Gov. George Pataki, separately gave the company another $525,000.
A private proposal by Evident to sell stock from December 2005 says the "Abbruzzese Group" owns 464,756 shares of Evident, including shares held by companies owned or controlled by Abbruzzese, such as Dove Interests LLC and Bazaguma (derived from the names of Abbruzzese's four children) LLC and 15,840 shares held by Sherrie Abbruzzese.
The same document says another Abbruzzese business, Niskayuna Development LLC, was granted the rights to buy 85,000 shares of stock in Evident at a discount for helping to secure Evident assistance from ESDC.
Nothing to see here, folks. Move along...
You should really go read the whole thing. It's a goldmine. |
