Friday, April 24, 2009

NYC Raids Major Housing Developer With Ties to Obama Adviser Adolfo Carrión

You don't say.
Investigators Thursday raided the Manhattan office of a major developer who funneled thousands in campaign cash to local politicians, including White House aide Adolfo Carrión.

City Department of Investigation agents spent hours gathering documents from the 155 Sixth Ave. offices of Atlantic Development Group.

Armed with a search warrant from the Manhattan district attorney's office, agents and cops removed dozens of boxes of records.

DOI spokeswoman Diane Struzzi confirmed the raid but declined further comment.

A spokesman for Atlantic, Lee Silberstein, said only: "There's an ongoing investigation, and Atlantic is cooperating with authorities."

One target of the probe is a major Bronx project, Boricua Village, that's at the heart of a Daily News investigation into Carrión, the director of White House urban policy who, until last year, was Bronx borough president.

In the last few years, Atlantic's owners, Peter Fine and Marc Altheim, and other company execs gave Carrión $52,400 in political contributions.

During that time, the then-borough president recommended approval of Atlantic's Boricua Village, one of the biggest publicly subsidized projects in the Bronx.

Carrión also sponsored $7.5 million in taxpayer funds for the project, which includes 675 units of housing and a 14-story tower for Boricua College.
The White House has continued supporting Carrión despite the baggage, and despite increasing questions over the propriety of Carrión's actions.

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