I guess we are about to find out just how bad the deal is. According to several law enforcement sources, at least one and most likely two criminal investigations will be launched as early as tomorrow into the deal.
One investigation is expected to be launched by HPD into various issues with the the deal, the other investigation is allegedly a Federal investigation requested by Mayor Pedro Segarra during a request he made to US Attorney Deirdre Daly earlier today.
The investigations are believed to the result of red flags raised by numerous questions in regard to the development deal. One question is the amount of work that has been claimed to have been done already on the site and payments made by the City using Capitol Improvement funds approaching $700.000. Much of that work and the scope of the work is apparently now in question.
According to City Hall sources, a stop payment order was placed on a check today that had been issued for additional work in question amounting to $305,000 . Numerous other questions have been raised regarding the authenticity of a letter of credit apparently given to the City by the developer showing credit of $404 million dollars from Barclay Bank as of June 2015. That letter appears to be signed by an individual, according to sources, that has not worked for Barclay's since 2004.
It is unclear the involvement or how this information was passed by numerous City Hall individuals, including Councilman Ken Kennedy, a major proponent of the project or Development Director Thomas Deller.
This deals needs to have the breaks put on and much more scrutiny needs to be shined on this project before moving forward.
Much more coming on this one.
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