Donors to Congressman Keating
- Michael Ansara: [225 Lowell St. Carlisle, MA 01741] $250 on 10/ 17 /2010
Ansara is a convicted felon from the Teamsters Election Scandal of the 1990’s.
According to ABC N EWS:
Federal prosecutors’ criminal case involving Teamsters was made when Ansara confessed to the FBI about his role in the donation swap. He has since cooperated and his testimony was key to the jury conviction prosecutors secured in 1999 against former Teamsters political director William Hamilton.
Ansara awaits sentencing after pleading guilty in September 1997 to one count of conspiracy to embezzle union funds and circumvent the federal rules governing union elections. He faces a maximum of five years in prison and $250,000 in fines.
Ansara acknowledged he created a shell company that allowed Teamsters officials to funnel union funds through political groups to assist Carey’s re-election bid. Prosecutors argued the scheme allowed union dues to be illegally used to support a union candidate.
Gore’s campaign said it didn’t know about Ansara’s role. “We relied on the DNC’s assurance that Ansara was no longer involved with the company,” Gore spokesman Doug Hattaway said.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=123099&page=1#.UJLjI8XA9j4
According to the conservative leaning National Legal and Politicy Center:
Second, Griesa sentenced Carlisle, Mass., telemarketer Michael Ansara to a probation term on Mar. 7. Ansara had pled guilty to one count of conspiracy. Although Ansara had already paid $395,000 in restitution as part of his plea, Griesa ordered Ansara at sentencing to pay an extra $250,000. Ansara filed objections to the additional amount, but the court records indicate that the judgment has been paid and the case closed.
http://nlpc.org/stories/2002/05/13/davis-ansara-sentenced-pay-1345000-restitution
Ansara’s role in the Teamsters Election Scandal is also detailed in the book Solidarity for Sale: How Corruption Destroyed the Labor Movement and Undermined America’s Promise by Robert Fitch
Ansara has also given to Elizabeth Warren so the potential for the Brown campaign and/or other Republican organizations to amplify the problems with receiving donations from him exists.
According to a New Bedford Economic Development Council press release on June 7th 2012, Ansara’s current company Upsourse is now doing business in the city of New Bedford with the support of the local and state government. “UpSource received critical lending support from the New Bedford Economic Development Council and MassDevelopment to finance the cost of construction and technology for the center. Currently UpSource employs 75 full time people in the center and is optimistic to double that number over the next 2 -3 years.”
The entire press release is available from the NBEDC at
http://nbedc.org/2012/06/upsource-opening-of-new-contact-center-in-new-bedford/
Did Congressman Keating have any role in his donor and convicted felon Michael Ansara getting government assistance to open his business in the congressman’s district?
2. Gerald and Elaine Schuster (63 Kendrick St. Needham, MA 02494 & 132 Yarmouth Rd. Chestnut Hill, MA 02476) $2500 on 10/11/10; $1000 on 12/16/11 – The Schusters are large donors to the Democrats.
Gerald Schuster is the Chairman of Continental Wingate, Inc. a company that does real estate investment, particularly in the government subsidized, low income residential housing. Some may characterize the Schuster’s as “slum lords”.
According to a 2011 New York Daily News article:
They stood up to a slumlord, ruthless gangsters, predatory investors and the federal government. Now tenants at the Diego Beekman Houses are standing up to be recognized.
They took over the sprawling Mott Haven complex in 2003, had it renovated and are working with a new management company to make the complex safer and cleaner.
“Before we were at the mercy of the government, the drug dealers and the property owner,” said Carmen Santos, 68.
“Now we have a say-so in what happens here. We can accomplish what we want.”
The 38-building complex scattered near Beekman Ave. opened in 1974. Owned and managed by Boston-based Continental Wingate, rents were subsidized by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
But Wingate allowed the complex to deteriorate and crime there spiraled out of control.
By the time crack cocaine hit the Bronx in the early ’80s, Diego Beekman was ruled by The Cowboys, a vicious gang that laid murder victims in rows on the street.
“It was jungle habitat,” said Johnnie Johnson, 46, who rarely left her apartment out of fear. “There were holes in the walls. … I was always scared.”
“We had more drugs than the pharmacy and more guns than the precinct,” Santos said. “So much killing. …It was mayhem.”
Fed up, Santos and Johnson’s mother, Wilma, formed a tenant patrol and put pressure on HUD to clean up the complex.
“Law enforcement knew what was going on, but turned a blind eye,” said Arline Parks, 51, another tenant leader. “People were making millions here.”
It took years and the tenant leaders were intimidated – even mugged for circulating petitions seeking better conditions – but when the feds finally investigated Wingate, they uncovered neglect and fraud. HUD took control, renovating every Diego Beekman unit and arranging for an FBI raid that crippled The Cowboys.
According to the NY Times, the Schuster’s company has only “been accused by Federal officials of misappropriating $1.4 million” of federal funds.
A real estate developer who has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for President Clinton and the Democratic Party has been accused by Federal officials of misappropriating $1.4 million from a troubled housing complex in the South Bronx even as the tenements fell apart.
At the same time, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, which holds the mortgages for the Jose DeDiego Beekman Houses, is moving to seize the complex of 38 buildings and 1,238 apartments in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx.
For the last 25 years, the complex has been owned by Gerald Schuster, general partner of the Continental Wingate Company, a real estate company in Needham, Mass., that has rehabilitated dilapidated buildings in New York and Massachusetts with Federal subsidies, tax breaks and low-interest loans.
According to an audit by the Inspector General’s Office at HUD, Mr. Schuster and his companies siphoned $1.4 million in funds from the complex to pay company employees and to repay loans to his own companies. Some of the funds were also diverted to other investments.
The findings of the audit were referred to the United States Attorney’s Office, which notified Mr. Schuster in a March 25 letter that it was considering civil action in connection with the allegations. The United States Attorney has not filed a lawsuit.
The entire NY Times article “Owner of Bronx Tenements Misused Funds, Audit Finds” is available on line here: http://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/31/nyregion/owner-of-bronx-tenements-misused-funds-audit-finds.html?src=pm
An informative article on the Schuster’s was written by the left leaning Village Voice of New York in 1999 at the height of Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the US Senate.
The VV wrote:
According to SEIU officials, earlier this year, employees at the Schusters’ Wilbraham Nursing Home voted to unionize after a long series of conflicts with management over staffing inadequacies and fair treatement of workers. (This isn’t the first time the Schusters have had labor troubles. In 1993, 150 protesters, including Boston City Council members, demonstrated in front of Continental Wingate’s headquarters after its subsidiary, Wingate Health Management, replaced a construction company because it decided the previously agreed-upon use of union labor was too expensive.)
This 1999 Village Voice article can be found at http://www.villagevoice.com/1999-12-14/news/hillary-s-anti-union-slumlord-pals/
After all of this information was available to Congressman Keating about his donors, he still sponsored a Congressional recognition of Elaine Schuster on Nov. 4th of 2011.
According to the Congressional Record Cong. Keating said “I ask my colleagues to please join me in congratulating Elaine Schuster as she is honored for her generosity, drive and initiative, and I urge others to learn from her leadership and guidance.”
The resolution is available in full here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?r112:1:./temp/~r11287qQDg::
-Concerned Citizens of Massachusetts
