Complete coverage: Lawyer pension scandal -- Newsday.com

July 15, 2008

Cuomo expands state probe of public payrolls

In another expansion of the state's investigation, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office has sent out approximately 200 letters statewide -- about 100 of them on Long Island -- to professionals on public payrolls whose employment arrangements raised "red flags" to investigators because they may be improper, state officials said Tuesday.

June 13, 2008

State removes more lawyers from pension system

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli removed three more lawyers from the state pension system and canceled some pension credits for a fourth, his office announced Friday.

June 4, 2008

LI lawyer to pay $60G to settle pension issue

A Long Island attorney has agreed to pay $60,000 to settle claims he improperly received health and pension benefits by being listed as an employee of two Nassau school districts, State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday.

May 24, 2008

Judge refuses to stop state's pension probe

A judge Friday refused to immediately stop state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli from acting against four attorneys - two from Long Island - who they believe are improperly benefiting from the state pension system.

May 23, 2008

Agency's mistake earns 2 lawyers pension credits

Two prominent lawyers working as independent contractors for the Babylon Town Industrial Development Agency have been accumulating public pension benefits for close to two decades because the agency incorrectly labeled them as employees, according to the organization's top official.

May 16, 2008

Attorneys file suit vs. pension revocations

Four private attorneys who were expecting or receiving state pensions say Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's moves to bar them from the state retirement system are a "politically motivated gambit" that violates their constitutional rights.

May 15, 2008

2 LI attorneys to join suit to keep pensions

Two Long Island private attorneys who had earned state pension credits will join a class-action lawsuit seeking to block Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli from stripping their state pensions, their attorney said yesterday.

May 9, 2008

Some lawyers saw pensions as "perk of partnership"

For lawyers of an Albany area law firm, getting a public pension for no-show jobs at a BOCES was a "perk of partnership," the head of the state investigation said yesterday.

May 8, 2008

LI accountant, 2 lawyers lose state pension credits

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has removed two Long Island attorneys from the state retirement system and rescinded some pension credits of an accountant from Long Island after finding the three had been improperly reported as public employees, spokesman Dennis Tompkins said yesterday.

April 10, 2008

Cuomo: 90 attorneys' pensions 'potentially fraudulent'

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Thursday that his office has found more than 90 attorneys around the state, including 20 on Long Island, who may have improperly been given credit for state pensions because of "potentially fraudulent" claims that they were employees of school districts and not ineligible outside contractors.

April 4, 2008

Timeline of Newsday's investigation into double-dipping

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.

April 24, 2008

Cuomo eyes 12 upstate attorneys in pension scandal

At least 12 present or former attorneys at an Albany law firm, including a current commissioner of the state Public Service Commission, are under investigation by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for improperly getting state pension credits from a single BOCES district upstate, according to sources familiar with the investigation and attorneys for some of those involved.

April 14, 2008

Cuomo's state pension investigation expands

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's investigation into the possibly improper awarding of state pensions to attorneys for school districts has escalated sharply, and now includes a host of other professionals who may also have received state pension credits, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

Nassau seeks payback for questioned pension credits

The New York State comptroller is reviewing the case of a private attorney in Nassau County who received 21 years of retroactive pension credits -- helping him earn a six-figure annual pension -- even though he had been paid as an independent contractor all those years, a spokesman said Monday.

April 3, 2008

Cuomo: Lawyer pensions on school payrolls are "fraud"

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo Thursday night said 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.

March 28, 2008

23 LI school districts have private lawyers on rolls

Twenty-three school districts -- nearly one-fifth of all the school districts on Long Island -- improperly reported private attorneys as employees, which helped the attorneys earn public pensions totaling more than $342,082 a year, plus health benefits worth thousands more, a Newsday review of records has found.

March 7, 2008

NY comptroller: Attorney has to pay back pension

Five school districts incorrectly classified a private attorney as an employee, allowing him to obtain a yearly pension of nearly $62,000 to which he was not entitled, the State comptroller said in an opinion released Friday.

March 5, 2008

School doubled lawyer's salary, boosting pension

Hewlett-Woodmere school officials more than doubled the salary of a private attorney on its payroll 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 during those same years, district records show.

March 5, 2008

Pension probe to scrutinize state school districts

The investigation into possible double-dipping by attorneys working for school districts in obtaining state pensions expanded markedly Wednesday, as State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo asked for information about potential financial irregularities from all 704 school districts across the state.

February 28, 2008

Lawyer in probe sought spot on school district payroll

Carol Hoffman, one of three Long Island attorneys under federal and state investigation for their financial relationships with school districts, asked the Glen Cove school district to put her on the payroll in 2001, justifying it by saying that three other districts were doing the same thing, according to her letter.

February 26, 2008

Federal agents subpoena two dozen school districts

A slew of federal agents ranged out over Long Island yesterday hand-delivering grand jury subpoenas to more than two dozen school districts as part of an investigation into possible double-dipping by attorneys employed by some of the districts, according to school officials, attorneys and sources.

February 25, 2008

Attorney sought to get on Roslyn payroll

Carol Hoffman, one of three Long Island attorneys currently under federal and state investigation for their employment arrangements with school districts, solicited the Roslyn school district in writing in 1998 asking to be put on the payroll and explaining that she wanted to get more credit in the state pension system.

February 24, 2008

Reich's journey started at state Education Dept.

It started for Lawrence Reich behind the towering marble columns of the New York State Education Department, across the street from the state Capitol in Albany. It ended for him beneath the gold-framed Gustav Klimt posters in a law firm's conference room in Hauppauge.

February 23, 2008

Four law firms dominate school district services

On Long Island, where public education is a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, four law firms control more than 60 percent of the estimated cost for legal services.

February 24, 2008

Cuomo wants records from every LI school district

The investigation into possible financial misconduct at Long Island school districts has escalated sharply as New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo requested that all 124 districts on Long Island provide extensive information on their relationships with lawyers and law firms for the past eight years.

February 23, 2008

Probe of school districts' deals with lawyers grows

The investigation into allegations of financial wrongdoing at a number of Long Island school districts has mushroomed, with the New York State Attorney General's office subpoenaing the records of two more law firms and federal agents, in a parallel investigation, serving subpoenas on officials in a number of school districts.

February 22, 2008

Islanders sound off on schools' private lawyers

Long Islanders interviewed yesterday by Newsday expressed mostly outrage about Lawrence Reich and other private attorneys who have been listed by school districts as employees, enabling them to earn state pensions, while their law firms were also being paid fees by those districts. Some of those interviewed demanded a thorough county investigation of the matter, while others said the money paid to the lawyers should be used to fund teacher salaries and after-school programs.

February 21, 2008

More schools involved in lawyer, pension scandal

Six more Long Island school districts listed two private attorneys as employees, enabling them to earn state pensions, while also paying their law firms more than $1 million in fees, state and district records show.

TIMELINE: The story so far

Feb. 14: Newsday.com 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 public pension of nearly $62,000 and health benefits for life.

February 20, 2008

FBI, IRS get Suffolk attorney Reich's records

Federal agents yesterday obtained the business records of a Suffolk County attorney who is at the center of a criminal investigation involving his employment by five Long Island school districts.

February 17, 2008

Official who warned Reich now in Roslyn district

The Harborfields school official who made light of Lawrence Reich's employment arrangement in a letter warning him to "correct the record" now works in the Roslyn school district, which has weathered its own financial scandal in recent years.

February 19, 2008

AG Cuomo starts investigation into 5 LI districts

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo yesterday started an investigation, parallel to an ongoing federal probe, into possible financial misconduct at five Long Island school districts, issuing a subpoena for records at the Hauppauge law firm of Ingerman Smith, according to a spokesman for Cuomo and an attorney for the firm.

February 17, 2008