LONG ISLAND CORRUPTION
Complete coverage: LI benefits fraud probe
(Investigative Reports from Newsday)
March 7, 2008
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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 21, 2008
And so it grows, with today's installment of lawyers, law firms, school districts, school board members and superintendents caught in the glare of public scrutiny.
February 20, 2008
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
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
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 19, 2008
Children.
February 19, 2008
A part-time private attorney who was listed as a full-time employee by five school districts - enabling him to earn health benefits and a nearly $62,000-a-year state-funded pension, while his law firm was paid millions of dollars in fees - has been suspended by his current law firm, one of its partners said yesterday.
February 18, 2008
How does an attorney in private practice, a partner in a big educational law firm raking in millions of dollars for representing 40 local school districts, qualify for a $61,000-a-year state pension and health benefits?
February 17, 2008
A small-town law firm founded in 1937, Ingerman Smith grew into a legal powerhouse, representing more than one-third of all the school districts on Long Island and racking up millions of dollars in fees.
February 17, 2008
A small-town law firm founded in 1937, Ingerman Smith grew into a legal powerhouse, representing more than one-third of all the school districts on Long Island and racking up millions of dollars in fees.
February 16, 2008
A federal grand jury in Central Islip has opened an investigation into possible fraudulent financial double-dipping at five Long Island school districts, according to several sources.
February 15, 2008
Five Long Island school districts falsely reported to the state that a part-time private attorney 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 15, 2008
Attorney Lawrence Reich says what he was doing was "common practice" among Long Island attorneys.
February 14, 2008
Attorney Lawrence Reich says what he was doing was "common practice" among Long Island attorneys.
