DiMasi is said to attempt cover-up – Prosecutors say he lied, talked of concealing evidence

Sal DiMasi Scandal

By Andrea Estes

Former House speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi attempted to cover up evidence of his involvement in the Cognos scandal after the controversy was exposed in newspaper articles in 2008, according to a new court filing by prosecutors.

DiMasi told his former law associate that “it would be nice if you could lose your check register,’’ the filings say, after the lawyer confronted him with the fact that the register contained entries showing that funds were funneled to him from the software firm.

In a 68-page trial brief filed yesterday, prosecutors detailed a series of efforts by DiMasi and his codefendants to cover up their actions after the Globe started publishing articles about DiMasi’s connections to the software firm Cognos and his efforts to help the company win multimillion dollar state contracts.

Prosecutors want to introduce the coverup evidence at DiMasi’s upcoming trial, saying the actions “constitute obstruction of justice-type conduct and demonstrate a consciousness of guilt.’’

DiMasi and three associates are accused of conspiring to steer two contracts to Cognos in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars. DiMasi, who resigned as speaker amid criminal investigations, allegedly pocketed $65,000 through the former law associate, Steven Topazio. Topazio is expected to be a key prosecution witness at the trial, scheduled to begin in late April.

Also standing trial are Richard D. Vitale, DiMasi’s former accountant, Richard W. McDonough, DiMasi’s friend and Cognos’s former lobbyist, and Joseph P. Lally Jr., the independent sales agent who sold the state the two software contracts.

The four men say the money they received represented legitimate legal, lobbying, or consulting fees, not kickbacks or bribes, as prosecutors allege. Lally, his lawyer asserts, did not know that any of the money Cognos paid Topazio found its way to DiMasi.

In their filing, prosecutors cite several steps DiMasi and the others took to conceal their role after the stories began to appear.

DiMasi, prosecutors said, lied to his press secretary as he prepared responses to a reporter’s questions. He told his press aide he had done nothing to help Cognos win state contracts. He also said he had no idea that Topazio was paid by Cognos and did not know that Lally was working as Cognos’s independent sales agent. Those statements were all false, prosecutors say.

Lally lied, too, prosecutors said, when incriminating stories began to appear. He tried to explain to Cognos executives why Topazio was on the company’s lobbying payroll when he was not doing any work.

He told one top Cognos official that he had hired Topazio to work on “initiatives related to the National Speakers Association.’’

He told a different Cognos executive that Topazio and Vitale were business partners helping him put together a business plan for his company, Montvale Solutions. Yesterday, Lally’s lawyer, Robert Goldstein, asked the judge in the case, Chief US District Court Judge Mark Wolf, to exclude those two explanations, saying they are not relevant and are highly prejudicial.

Vitale, who received $600,000 from Lally even though he “did no work,’’ also sought to hide his ties to DiMasi and Cognos, prosecutors allege.

After the Globe began asking Vitale about his relationship with DiMasi, Vitale sought to have e-mails deleted from his accounting firm’s server. He also asked his assistant to retrieve a file in which he kept copies of all the documents he had hand-delivered to DiMasi at the State House, including the legislative language that had to be approved before state officials could award a $13 million contract to Cognos in 2007, prosecutors allege. Prosecutors do not say what he did with the file.

In the trial brief, prosecutors describe a group of friends who thought they could exploit DiMasi’s powerful position for their future financial security.

DiMasi had become financially strapped since becoming speaker, unable to practice law on a regular basis. Vitale and DiMasi, prosecutors assert, were finding ways to keep him afloat while still in office and preparing for his eventual departure from the Legislature.

In addition to latching onto Cognos, prosecutors say, Vitale and DiMasi put together Genesis LLC, a building management company that they hoped would trade on DiMasi’s influence to generate income in the future.

Vitale was “extending present and future financial benefits to a cash-strapped DiMasi,’’ prosecutors charged. In June 2006, after DiMasi was turned down for a loan by a commercial lender, Vitale gave him a $250,000 line of credit, which required only that he pay interest at the prime rate.

To make sure the administration awarded Cognos a $13 million performance management software contract, prosecutors allege, DiMasi and the others “leveraged his power as speaker to pressure [the administration], thereby funding Lally’s profits and kickbacks to McDonough and Vitale.’’

The Patrick administration, whose dealings with DiMasi had been difficult, apparently hoped that approving the contract would lead to better relations.

After the contract was signed in August 2007, Administration and Finance Secretary Leslie Kirwan e-mailed her undersecretary, Henry Dormitzer: “Everyone seems happy,’’ she wrote. “Hope the big guy down the hall is, too, and we get some credit.’’
© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.

Judge who halts Sal DiMasi hearing a former donor

Photo by Herald file

The judge who abruptly pulled the plug yesterday on a hearing over indicted former House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi’s bid to have his state pension restored gave $50 to the disgraced pol’s election campaign in August 1990, the Herald has learned.

DiMasi’s attorney, Thomas R. Kiley, was a character witness for Boston Municipal Court Judge Raymond G. Dougan Jr. when, three months later, in November 1990, Dougan was nominated an associate justice by then-Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, according to state records.

Dougan, 65, still has DiMasi’s case before him but has postponed it until June 30 so he can confer with BMC Chief Justice Charles Johnson “to determine who is best suited to hear the matter,” said Joan Kenney, state court spokeswoman.

DiMasi, 64, was an assistant Suffolk district attorney in the mid-1970s and later a private attorney who possibly stood before any number of jurists.

The endangered Democrat’s $4,952-per-month retirement allowance has been held up since November while he awaits trial in federal court on mail fraud and conspiracy charges alleging he took $57,000 in bribes from a software company in exchange for state contracts.

DiMasi has pleaded not guilty and claims he needs his pension to pay for his defense and to live.

“I need my retirement allowance to support myself and my family,” he said in court documents. “I had a thriving legal practice until I became speaker but restricted it upon becoming speaker (in 2004) to avoid conflicts and the appearance of conflicts.”

DiMasi resigned his State House seat on Jan. 27, 2009, prior to being indicted. Kiley could not be reached for comment last night.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1261647

Salvatore DiMasi faces fraud rap

Photo by Angela Rowlings

Ex-Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi is facing up to 20 years in prison for allegedly taking kickbacks in yet another State House corruption scandal that has cast a pall over Beacon Hill and sent the onetime iron-fisted leader’s former colleagues scrambling for cover.

DiMasi was hit with fraud and conspiracy charges yesterday in a scathing indictment that painted him as the “coach” of a team of conspirators who cut lucrative deals in backrooms and on golf courses from Boston to Florida, lining his own pocket to the tune of $60,000, federal agents alleged.

Prosecutors said DiMasi used his legislative might to steer $20 million in taxpayer-funded software contracts to Cognos in 2007. In exchange, the Canadian firm funneled payments to an unnamed lawyer in DiMasi’s law office, who in turn cut the then-speaker checks ranging from $4,000 to $25,000, authorities alleged.

At one point during the alleged scheme, DiMasi boasted to a pal, “It’s about time we got business like this,” according to acting U.S. Attorney Michael Loucks.

Also charged yesterday were DiMasi’s friend and former accountant Richard Vitale, Cognos lobbyist Richard McDonough and former Cognos executive Joseph Lally Jr. All four were released on $10,000 surety and are due back in federal court Monday.

DiMasi, who became the third consecutive speaker to land in the defendant’s chair in federal court, had tears in his eyes as he addressed a crush of media outside Moakley Federal Courthouse.

“Every decision that I have ever made as the speaker or as a state representative was always made in the best interests of my constituents and the people of the commonwealth of Massachusetts,” DiMasi said, clutching the hand of his wife, Debbie. He brushed off media questions and left in a black Jaguar driven by his lawyer.

Meanwhile, Speaker Robert DeLeo, a longtime DiMasi ally, and his leadership team went into bunker mode yesterday. They discussed beefing up ethics rules in a bid to rebuild shattered public trust, including giving in to a proposal by Gov. Deval Patrick to ban gifts to politicians and give prosecutors power to tap crooked lawmakers’ phones, sources said.

One lawmaker said news of DiMasi’s indictment “sucked all the air out of the room” during the DeLeo leadership meeting.

DeLeo, who oversaw the key legislative committee that ushered through the Cognos legislation, said he was “saddened and disappointed” by the charges.

His attorney, Robert Popeo, sought to distance the speaker from the scandal, saying he has fully complied with investigators.

“He is not a subject, target or person of interest in any of the investigation that is taking place,” Popeo said. “People from his office produced records (to the grand jury). He was never in front of the grand jury.”

Patrick last night said the indictment was “deeply disturbing,” while one lawmaker called the charges “a huge distraction and a huge blow to the House.”

DiMasi’s indictment comes just two years after former Speaker Thomas M. Finneran was convicted of obstruction of justice and was put on 18 months’ probation. Finneran’s predecessor, Charles Flaherty, resigned from the Legislature in 1996 after pleading guilty to tax evasion and ethics violations. It also comes months after former state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson was charged with taking bribes.

McDonough’s attorney, Thomas Drechsler, proclaimed his client’s innocence and called the allegations “an attack on the lobbying profession.”

“What he is accused of is doing what he has done honorably and honestly for over 30 years and that is to lobby on behalf of his client,” Drechsler said. “He advocated for language in legislation. That’s what lobbyists are paid to do.”

Edward Mason contributed to this report.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1176446

Not a fan, felonious Tom Finneran? Well pardon me!

Photo by Nancy Lane

Are you talkin’ to me, Felon Finneran?

I quote now from the letter that four bust-out ex-governors of Massachusetts have written to President Bush, begging them to pardon former House speaker Tommy Taxes Finneran, a man so crooked he needs a corkscrew to get into his pants in the morning.

“He has suffered daily taunts and ridicule of those who believe that every elected official is the equivalent of a common thief.”

That’s me they’re talking about. When it comes to Felon Finneran, I’m in charge of daily taunts and ridicule. But despite what the Four Stooges wrote, I don’t believe every elected official is a thief. Finneran, on the other hand, was the House speaker – a job title that lately has a higher recidivism rate than godfather of the Gambino Crime Family.

As for Tommy Taxes being a “common thief” – I would never say that. Common thieves who do the crime do the time. Finneran committed multiple counts of perjury in the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals, but was convicted of one count of obstruction of justice, and didn’t do an hour, let alone a day, in durance vile.

And he still refuses to take responsibility for his sordid life of crime. So far, he’s Alibi Ike.

First excuse: he lied under oath because he was in a hurry to drive his wife to Mass General.

Second excuse: he’d been “gulping” Advil. No joke – Tommy Taxes claimed he was “Advil-addled.”

New excuse: I’ve ruined everything for him. Yeah, and tonight I’m going to make it snow.

The Four Stooges said Felon Finneran has been “severely punished.” Really? He’s still making big money for his wretched radio show, which we call “Sweet Sixteen,” because that’s generally about where it finishes in the ratings. The Felon usually runs neck and neck with “The River,” and sometimes he even edges the Manchester N.H. soft-rock station. Sometimes. His show is so compelling it now goes off the air at 9 instead of 10, and they’re trying to prop him up with a co-host.

Finneran should be breakin’ rocks in the hot sun. He fought the law and the law won. Although I still remember the day he was “sentenced,” and how Judge Rick Stearns was almost apologizing for having to ask him the questions every convicted felon has to answer.

Are you on drugs this morning, wiseguy? You do know you can’t own a firearm anymore, maggot. But no, it was all “Mistah Speakah” this and “I know this is a silly question but . . .” I was there in the courtroom hoping to make a victim-impact statement. See, I was at the courthouse the day Felon Finneran told his string of incredible whoppers about his racist gerrymandering scheme in the city of Boston.

I was shocked, shocked, I tell you. I tried not to let it destroy my faith in the integrity of the Massachusetts Legislature. But I can’t get over it. Then last year, the Felon speculated to Gov. Patrick that I should be taken for a one-way ride in the trunk of the governor’s Coupe Deval.

You can take the felon out of the State House, but you can’t take the State House out of the felon. President Bush, don’t enough people hate you already? You don’t need your own Marc Rich.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1144332

Tom Finneran Felon Finneran

Former House speaker Thomas M. Finneran, arriving at his Mattapan home Monday. (Globe Staff Photo / Justine Hunt)
The Boston Globe

Finneran’s gathering storm

Ex-speaker’s strongest traits may have hastened his fall

By Don Aucoin, Globe Staff | June 9, 2005

It was a spring night in 2001, and the hottest question on Beacon Hill was whether the state budget proposal about to be released by the House Ways and Means Committee would contain adequate funds for the Clean Elections Law.

The law to provide public financing of campaigns had been overwhelmingly approved by voters several years earlier, but House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran had made no secret of his hostility to it, and that had spelled doom for many a measure in the State House over the years.

That made Finneran’s response all the more surprising when a reporter asked how much money would be in the Ways and Means budget for Clean Elections. ”I literally have no idea,” Finneran said. He went on to explain that he had been so busy with other legislative matters that he had left it in the hands of Ways and Means chairman John Rogers.

The notion of a hands-off approach on something Finneran cared about so deeply ran counter to everything that was known about the controlling, detail-oriented man who ran the House. But for the eight years Finneran presided as a speaker of unchallenged power, he seldom felt the need to agonize over his words or his image. Indeed, he was every inch the happy warrior, a sharp-tongued figure who freely expressed his opinions.

Yet in the aftermath of his indictment Monday on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, some wonder whether the very traits that propelled Finneran’s rise to power — a self-confidence bordering on the cocksure, a reflexive refusal to yield on points large or small, an eager appetite for political combat — may have worked together to hasten his fall.

”Hubris,” said Pamela Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause of Massachusetts, speculating on why Finneran denied any involvement in the redistricting process. ”There would have been no consequences to him had he told the truth: ‘Yes, I met with lawmakers and talked about this; yes, I met with the chairman of the committee.’ There would have been no repercussions. People would have said, ‘Look, there’s Finneran controlling the process again, but that would been, ‘Yawn, yawn, what’s new?’ ”

Finneran has vigorously maintained his innocence. Moreover, he has done so with the unambiguous force that characterized his eight years as House speaker, issuing a statement saying, ”My response to the charges brought against me today is NOT GUILTY,” and telling reporters: ”I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.”

If that is true, that would mean Finneran is less bothered by the indictment than are some of his admirers. Former House speaker David Bartley contended that the indictment is ”just outrageous,” and that Finneran is called arrogant simply for exerting strong leadership and for being unyielding in his beliefs.

Such support is a testament to the charisma and brainpower Finneran brought to the post of House speaker, along with an iron-fisted approach that made dissidents an endangered species. Critics say Finneran’s belief that he was smarter than most — an opinion honed and to an extent affirmed in the State House — contributed to his current legal predicament. In this view, the commanding — critics called it arrogant — demeanor that defined his leadership in the House simply boomeranged on the witness stand.

”He was just daring the attorneys to challenge him, to doubt him,” remarked Representative James J. Marzilli, a Democrat from Arlington who was often at loggerheads with Finneran during the decade-plus they served together in the House. ”You carry that outside this chamber, this institution, and people are a lot less willing to live by the rules he’s trying to force upon them.”

His will was so fierce, his talents so outsized, that Finneran grew used to getting his way on Beacon Hill. Often, his word literally was law. Now a jury will decide whether he broke the law with a few words of emphatic denial when he was asked, under oath, whether he knew the contents of a legislative redistricting plan before it was made public.

Lou DiNatale, director of the Center for Economic and Civic Opinion at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, said it was clear from the former speaker’s testimony that he found it ”outrageous he had to testify before a federal jury over something that speakers have done over time immemorial in every state in the country . . . to protect his party members, Democrats, and his leadership. He made a mistake. He assumed this wasn’t going to be as explosive a public issue as it became.”

Whatever the outcome, the indictment has refocused the spotlight on a figure as compelling as he is contradictory. Finneran is a student of history who loves Edward Gibbon’s ”The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” and Winston Churchill’s ”The Gathering Storm,” but he didn’t seem to see the storm gathering around him or to apprehend that his own pride and power might lead to a fall. In interviews with admirers and detractors of the former speaker, it was striking how often the twin themes of ambition and tragedy were sounded.

”Tom Finneran thought he was going to be either mayor of Boston or a United States senator,” said John McDonough, a former legislator and now executive director of Health Care for All, a consumer advocacy group. ”He clearly saw the speakership not as a terminal position but as a launching pad for something bigger. Given his ambitions, there’s a note of tragedy in it, that someone so gifted and talented was not able to capitalize on his position to achieve that bigger goal.”

Barbara Anderson, head of Citizens for Limited Taxation, considered Finneran to have ”a very thin skin stretched over a very big ego” from the day in 1991 when he ignored her outstretched hand and stalked away from her after the two did battle over Proposition 2 1/2, the tax-limiting measure that was her brainchild. Nonetheless, Anderson said, she now views Finneran as ”a tragic figure who had tremendous potential for leadership but instead he got lost in his own hubris.”

Over time, Finneran became known for what he said as much as for what he did. In the middle of the 1998 debate over how much public financing should be given to New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft to build a new stadium, Finneran at a dinner in Peabody dismissed the idea of a tax break for the project with a vulgarity.

In 1998, at a post-primary unity breakfast after Scott Harshbarger had won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, the facade of unity crumbled in a hurry when Finneran floated the notion that Harshbarger might drift toward ”the loony left,” a blow to a nominee who hoped and needed to appeal to moderate voters.

But for all of his swagger, the depictions of Finneran as a cartoon tyrant miss the mark, insist many who served with him, including some who lined up against him on issues or on leadership style. Most describe a man who was unfailingly cordial, who invariably recalled the names of members’ spouses and children, and who would blink back tears while discussing the challenges facing the mentally retarded.

Representative Michael Festa, a Melrose Democrat who emerged as one of Finneran’s leading critics, said, ”It’s a rare member of the House that would say they didn’t like Tom Finneran.”

Even though Festa often spoke out against Finneran’s tight control of the House, the two enjoyed a friendly relationship based on a shared love of gardening, and Festa had Finneran and his wife as a guest at his house several times. ”The man is sufficiently complex for everyone to understand he’s not that one-dimensional as a person,” Festa said.

Yet the image that came through to the outside world sometimes lacked those other dimensions. Having entered the Legislature in his late 20s, Finneran perhaps inevitably leaned on the instincts and style of a State House insider. But that very style may have worked against him on the witness stand, in the view of DiNatale, who believes that the indictment is unfair.

”Finneran got popped for the wink and the nod,” DiNatale contended. ”Because the culture of the [State House] building is ‘I know and you don’t know what’s really going on,’ the wink and the nod is the dominant form of being in the know. . . . You can play these winking games with the press, you can even play them with the Legislature. You can’t play them under oath.”

Rick Klein and Jonathan Saltzman of the Globe staff contributed to this report.

Sal DiMasi easily re-elected House speaker

By Hillary Chabot |   Wednesday, January 7, 2009  |  http://www.bostonherald.com |  Local Politics

Photo by Angela Rowlings

Rep. Salvatore DiMasi was overwhelmingly re-elected Speaker of the House this morning with 135 out of 159 votes, an impressive showing of support for the embattled politician.

“I want to thank my fellow members for your overwhelming vote of confidence today,” DiMasi said.

Fourteen representatives, including seven GOP legislators, voted “present.”

Earlier in the day, a Democratic caucus took an informal voice vote supporting DiMasi’s reelection, which was a largely ceremonial pledge preceding the official House vote.

The North End Democrat – who has been dogged by an ethics scandal and whose former accountant is under criminal investigation – became emotional after a unanimous Democratic caucus gave him the nod, ensuring he’d win the formal vote.

“I found out I have a lot of friends, and that is important in this job because you need a lot of friends,” he said, his voice wavering.

Legislators including Rep. Marie St. Fleur (D-Boston) and Rep. Jay R. Kaufman (D-Lexington) delivered the nominating speeches, rather than House leadership members, who typically play that ceremonial role.

DiMasi dismissed speculation that he changed nominating speakers because of waning support, saying he wanted to show the diversity of support he has.

Jessica Fargen contributed to this report.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1143707

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BOSTON — A key ally of Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi says he will not back DiMasi’s bid for another two-year term because of ethics questions hanging over the Boston Democrat.

Rep. David Torrisi tells The Boston Globe that he agonized over the decision, and has decided to vote “present” at next week’s vote.

The North Andover Democrat says it’s time for a House leadership change.

Torrisi, House chairman of the Committee on Labor and Workforce Development, is the first Democrat to break with DiMasi and go public with concerns that ethical investigations regarding DiMasi make it difficult for him to be effective.

Authorities are investigating payments made to DiMasi’s friends and associates by special interest groups seeking favors on Beacon Hill.

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DiMasi accountant Vitale indicted

Sal DiMasi Accountant Richard Vitale Indicted

Boston Business Journal

Kamal Jain December 18, 2008 3:58PM EST

The root problem isn’t the abuse of power, it is the power to abuse. It isn’t the regulations being flaunted — it is the system itself which is ill-conceived.Lobbying should be illegal.

Vitale case is referred to Coakley

Richard Vitale

AG urged to press compliance issue

By Andrea Estes Globe Staff / June 18, 2008

Secretary of State William F. Galvin, thwarted in his efforts to examine the relationship between a group of ticket brokers and a close friend of House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, asked Attorney General Martha Coakley yesterday to take whatever steps are necessary “to ensure compliance.”

more stories like this

“This represents a remarkable case of stonewalling by people who have taken money to influence public policy,” Galvin said in an interview after he sent Coakley an inch-thick pile of documents about the ticket brokers and their hiring of accountant Richard Vitale.

Since her election in 2006 Coakley has not handled an alleged violation of the state’s lobbying laws, according to spokeswoman Emily LaGrassa, who would not say how the office will probably proceed with this one. She said the attorney general’s office had not prosecuted such a case in at least the last six or seven years.

“If we did in fact receive the letter, we have not seen it,” said LaGrassa, whose office was closed yesterday for Bunker Hill Day. “We’ll review it. Beyond that, we’re not going to comment.”

Galvin said he felt compelled to refer the dispute to the attorney general to uphold the spirit of lobbying disclosure rules. “If people feel they don’t have to file, then we’re inviting the type of activity that ultimately leads to influence peddling and corruption,” he said.

The circumstances of this case, Galvin said, made it especially difficult to force compliance. While Galvin has the power to bar lobbyists from working in the state, he said, Vitale doesn’t consider himself a lobbyist and therefore the threat would be meaningless.

For nearly two months, Galvin has been trying to compel Vitale, DiMasi’s close friend and accountant, to explain inconsistencies between a lobbying report he filed and one filed by the Massachusetts Association of Ticket Brokers.

The ticket brokers reported paying Vitale and lawyer John T. McLaughlin $60,000 in 2007 through his firm WN Advisors LLC. Their 2008 report is not due until July.

But Vitale, who registered as a lobbyist for 2008, reported no income from the group. He admits being hired by the ticket brokers to help with legislation that would remove caps on ticket prices, but has said through a spokesman that he was a strategist, not a lobbyist.

If he had been a registered lobbyist when he worked for the ticket brokers, he and DiMasi might have violated the state’s conflict of interest law, which prohibits lobbyists from giving anything to a public official.

Galvin ordered Vitale, McLaughlin, and the ticket brokers to hearings to clear up the contradictions, but they refused to show up. Vitale’s lawyer, Richard Egbert, argued that Galvin’s office has authority only to compile records and to refer violations to the attorney general.

He said that Vitale could not file disclosure reports even if he wanted to, because he didn’t keep any records.

Galvin is supporting legislation that would give him stronger powers to investigate alleged violations of lobbying disclosure rules.

George Regan, Vitale’s spokesman, declined to comment on Galvin’s referral to the attorney general. “We have not been notified or seen anything in writing, and we’re not going to respond to anything we haven’t seen,” he said. “If something is filed, we’ll deal with it then.”

Andrea Estes can be reached at estes@globe.com.