Cuomo wants records from every LI school district

BY ROBERT E. KESSLER | robert.kessler@newsday.com

February 24, 2008

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.

"Double dipping and self-dealing cannot be permitted," Cuomo spokesman Jeffrey Lerner said late yesterday afternoon, in explaining the marked expansion of Cuomo's ongoing probe. "The attorney general's office will be looking beyond whether any one person did something wrong. We are now focused on determining whether these alleged abuses are systemwide."

Ten days ago, Newsday reported that one lawyer, Lawrence Reich, had been a full-time employee of five school districts simultaneously, even as he and his law firm, Ingerman Smith of Hauppauge, were being paid for services. That arrangement allowed Reich to receive a state pension and lifetime health benefits.

Since that story was published, two more lawyers were reported by Newsday to have been on the payrolls of six additional districts, bringing the total to 11. Yesterday's developments expand the investigation to every Long Island district.

Since the first story broke, a federal grand jury in Central Islip has opened an investigation and federal prosecutors, FBI and IRS agents have questioned potential witnesses and issued subpoenas.

Cuomo, in a separate but parallel investigation, has subpoenaed three law firms in the past week to get their records in connection with attorneys receiving state retirement credit for working full or part time for the school systems while their law firms were also paid by the districts. Nobody has been charged.

Stressing the speed of the investigation, yesterday's letter to the districts from Cuomo's office asks that all the requested material be returned in writing by Friday and that before then a state investigator might contact the districts for oral reports on the material.

The letter - sent to all the school districts on Friday - was signed by the head of Cuomo's public integrity unit, Ellen Nachtigall Biben, who has the title of special deputy attorney general.

Among the information requested is the names of all lawyers who were paid as district employees while their firms also were retained by the district; the amount of money paid directly to the lawyers as district employees and the amount of money paid separately to their firms; and the names and amounts of payments to all lawyers by the districts.

The districts were asked to supply the information voluntarily. But sources told Newsday yesterday that the attorney general's office was prepared to issue subpoenas to compel any district that declined to cooperate voluntarily.