Timeline of Newsday's investigation into double-dipping

FROM NEWSDAY STAFF

11:46 AM EDT, April 4, 2008

FEB. 14-17: Newsday reports that five Long Island school districts falsely reported to the state that part-time private attorney Lawrence Reich was a full-time employee in each district, enabling him to earn a $62,000 pension and health benefits for life. A federal grand jury in Suffolk opens an investigation into possible fraudulent double-dipping at the districts; FBI agents subpoena the districts' financial records, and the state comptroller's office says it will audit four of the five districts. Newsday reports that Joseph Dragone, the Harborfields school official who made light of Reich's employment arrangement in a letter, retired from that district with a $122,000 pension and today makes $190,000 in the Roslyn school district as an interim superintendent.

FEB. 18-21: State attorney general starts investigation into possible financial misconduct in the districts. His office and that of the FBI and IRS subpoena records at Ingerman Smith, the law firm where Reich was employed. The law firm of Jaspan, Schlesinger, Hoffman suspends Reich, who went to work for that firm in January. Newsday reports that six more school districts listed two more private attorneys as employees, while also paying their law firms more than $1 million in fees.

FEB. 26-29: Newsday reports that attorney Carol Hoffman solicited the Roslyn and Glen Cove school districts in writing, asking to be put on the payroll in order to get more credit in the state pension system.

MARCH 6-7: Newsday reports that Hewlett-Woodmere school officials more than doubled the salary of private attorney Jerome Ehrlich in his last two years at the district -- substantially boosting his New York State pension -- while paying his law firm more than $400,000 in additional fees. State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announces that Reich will have to pay back pension money he's collected since 2006.

MARCH 12: State attorney general and Nassau comptroller ask special districts in Nassau to report any such employment arrangements. Sources say the Nassau district attorney's office subpoenaed various records from dozens of special districts for several different types of professionals.

MARCH 28: Newsday reports that 23 school districts -- nearly one-fifth of all the school districts on Long Island -- improperly reported private attorneys as employees.

APRIL 3: Newsday reports that the state comptroller's office retroactively gave a politically influential Nassau County lawyer 21 years' credit in the state pension system - even though he had been paid as a private contractor all those years - helping him get a six-figure pension for the rest of his life, records show.

APRIL 4: Newsday reports that Thomas DiNapoli, while chairman of the Mineola school board in the 1970s, made a motion and voted to put private attorney Henry Weinstein on the district's payroll, thus allowing Weinstein entitlement in the state pension system. Yesterday, as New York State comptroller, DiNapoli unveiled specific regulations to bar attorneys from being carried by districts as employees.

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said last night his office believes that "multiple acts of fraud" were committed when Long Island school districts put private attorneys on their payrolls so that the attorneys could receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in state pensions. And, the office is expanding its investigation from school and special districts to include towns and villages statewide.

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli moved to recoup all pension money awarded to private attorneys who were improperly reported as public employees, his office announced yesterday.

Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman urged both Cuomo and Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice to investigate the case of Valley Stream real estate lawyer Albert D'Agostino.