By Rick Forgione<br><a href="mailto:forgioner@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Rick</a>
Niagara Gazette
May 16, 2008 10:28 pm
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Two City Hall offices have been issued grand jury subpoenas in connection to an ongoing Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into former Niagara Falls Mayor Vince Anello.
The documents, ordered by the U.S. District Court, include the oath of offices Anello took in 2002 as councilman and in 2004 as mayor, along with a dozen agenda items from City Council meetings ranging from 2002 to 2007 involving businessman Joseph Anderson, the Wintergarden and the East Pedestrian Mall.
Federal investigators looked through some of those records last week, but returned Thursday to issue subpoenas to the City Clerk and City Controller offices, Mayor Paul Dyster confirmed Friday afternoon.
Acting Corporation Counsel Thomas O’Donnell said the city will cooperate fully to provide the subpoenaed records, which are due in front of a federal grand jury at 9:30 a.m. June 4.
The FBI started its investigation into Anello shortly after he became mayor four years ago. Agents targeted loans totaling $40,000 Anello received while he was running for mayor in late 2003 from Anderson, a prominent developer who purchased the old Wintergarden and was later granted a reduction in electrical service costs during Anello’s administration.
Anderson also obtained vending rights to the East Pedestrian Mall during the former mayor’s tenure.
Records involving the city’s business dealings with Anderson were subpoenaed at the started of the investigation, but no charges were ever filed against Anello. The specific agenda items requested Thursday involving Anderson’s properties stretch from a May 13, 2002, meeting when Anello was still a councilman until Oct. 2, 2006, almost two years after he was elected mayor.
The subpoenas, obtained Friday by the Niagara Gazette, also order copies of the oath of offices administered to Anello as a councilman and mayor.
Anello has maintained his innocence throughout the investigation and said the personal loans from Anderson did not buy the developer special treatment. He pointed out that all of the subpoenaed records are public documents and could easily be obtained through a Freedom of Information request.
“Nothing has changed, there isn’t anything new,” Anello said Friday evening. “I haven’t done anything wrong and there hasn’t been anybody — anybody — that has said I’ve done something wrong.”
Prior to leaving office Dec. 31, he had repeatedly questioned through the media whether the FBI investigation had ended since no activity was being made public. Despite Thursday’s action, Anello is keeping that stance.
“As far as I’m concerned, there is no investigation,” he said. “I haven’t heard anything from (FBI investigators) in four years. This will be the last time that I will be talking about this.”
An FBI spokesperson, citing grand jury secrecy, said she could not discuss the reasons for subpoenaing the records relating to Anderson’s dealings with the Anello administration.
“The FBI can neither confirm nor deny any matter that may fall under its investigative purview until such time as it becomes a matter of public record,” said Special Agent Maureen Dempsey.
The records are returnable to Assistant United States Attorney Paul Campana. Campana is one of a group of prosecutors assigned to work with a multi-federal agency task force that targets white-collar crime.
Grand Jury subpoena
Here is a breakdown of the subpoenaed Niagara Falls City Hall records ordered by the grand jury:
From City Clerk’s office
• All Falls City Council meeting minutes from 2002 to 2007.
• Documentation related to 12 different agenda items ranging from May 13, 2002, to Oct. 2, 2006.
• Hard copies of committee of the whole meeting minutes for each of the City Council meetings listed above.
• Agreements and correspondence related to the leasing and/or purchasing of the Wintergreen from 2002 to the present.
• Agreements and correspondence related to the leasing of the Falls East Pedestrian Mall.
• The Niagara Falls City Councilman Oath of Office for Vince Anello administered Jan. 1, 2002.
• The Niagara Falls Mayoral Oath of Office for Vince Anello administered Jan. 1, 2004.
From City Controller’s office
• Annual calendar year audited financials for the years 2002 through 2007.
• All documentation related to: The leasing and or purchase of the Wintergarden; the leasing of the East Pedestrian Mall; and the electrical service costs of the Wintergarden, East Pedestrian Mall and the Plaza Mall from 2002 to the present.
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