Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Special Prosecutor Needed in Pelham Manor Investigation

The Committee on Public Integrity Calls On District Attorney to Appoint Special Prosecutor Over Cop's Injury Investigation - December 20, 2011

Cries of a cover-up have followed the tragic November 15, 2011 serious injury of respected Pelham Manor Police Officer Michael Tillistrand and have left numerous calls on Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore to appoint a Special Prosecutor over the pending investigation. As reported in the November 17, 2011 edition of the Westchester County Journal News, Officer Tillistrand was hit and seriously injured during a routine traffic stop on Boston Post Road in the small village of Pelham Manor. While the accident was widely reported, it took days before The Journal News uncovered that the driver of the vehicle that hit Officer Tillistrand was the daughter of the Village of Pelham Manor Fire Chief, Joseph Ruggiero. The 28-year-old Tillistrand was admitted to Jacobi Hospital with life-threatening head injuries, made tremendous progress, and is currently in Helen Hayes, a Rockland County Rehabilitation facility. The Journal News reported on November 16, 2011, that the Pelham Manor Police had declined to comment "...about the status of the investigation until the chief came in at 10 a.m." Reporter James O'Rourke noted in his story that, "A silver coupe was covered by a tarp, perhaps to preserve evidence as it rained," and that, "A county police accident investigator said at the accident scene that the officer who was struck had been assisting another officer who was writing a citation for the driver of a stopped car." However, details pertaining to driver Jillian Ruggiero's texting-while-driving activity at the time she allegedly drove into Officer Tillistrand have been, it is alleged, kept secret. In addition to the apparent conflict of the Pelham Manor Police investigating the actions of the daughter of the Pelham Manor Fire Chief, there's more. In a bizarre series of events that left administrators at Jacobi Hospital frantic, the Pelham Manor Village Manager, John Pierpont and his wife apparently appeared to visit the injured Tillistrand shortly after he was admitted. It is reported that Mrs. Pierpont, a nurse associated with Sound Shore Hospital in New Rochelle, began reviewing Officer Tillistrand's medical charts. Mr. and Mrs. John Pierpont were allegedly escorted out of the hospital and banned from visiting the critically injured Tillistrand at Jacobi Hospital. The Pelham Manor Village Manager, John Pierpont, is not new to controversy. In an article believed to be from October of 1997, the local Town of Pelham newspaper, The Pelham Weekly, headlined an article, "Pierpont: No Comment On Mount Kisco Case." It was reported that Mr. Pierpont had, "no comment on a Westchester County district attorney's inquiry in a Mount Kisco case," noting that, "Pierpont was village manager in Mount Kisco until two years ago." The focus of the District Attorney's investigation was, "whether a crime was committed regarding computer equipment which was unaccounted for when a recent inventory was taken." The article quoted the Mount Kisco police as saying that, "the items [had been] returned." In the Village of Pelham Manor, the Village Manager is the highest public official.
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Press Release: Special Prosecutor Needed In Injured Cop's Investigation


Committee on Public Integrity
Tel:       202-374-3680          
email:  TheCommitteeOnPublicIntegrity@gmail.com        Web: www.CommitteeOnPublicIntegrity.com   
PRESS RELEASE 
For Immediate Release

The Committee on Public Integrity Calls On Westchester District Attorney to Appoint a Special Prosecutor Over Pelham Manor Police Officer Michael Tillistrand’s Accident Investigation.
The Committee on Public Integrity has officially requested that the Westchester County District Attorney appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate the November 15, 2011 accident involving Pelham Manor Police Officer Michael Tillistrand.
The life-threatening injury to the respected Officer Tillistrand has been followed by a series of events that have led to the question of the Pelham Manor Police Department’s conflict of interest as the driver of the automobile that hit the on-duty Tillistrand was driven by the daughter of the longtime Pelham Manor Fire Chief.
Details of additional allegations- including driving-while-texting and interfering with an on-going investigation- can be viewed at www.CommitteeOnPublicIntegrity.com
The Public is asked to provide any additional information to CommitteeOnPublicIntegrity@gmail.com
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Tuesday, April 12, 2011


Committee on Public Integrity

Tel: 202-374-3680
email: CommitteeOnPublicIntegrity@gmail.com

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release

U.S. Senate Candidate Involved in $250 Million Ponzi Scheme

The Committee on Public Integrity, in a joint investigation withIntegrity in the Courts Finds that Alexi Giannoulias, U. S. Senate Candidate in Illinois, Failed to Reveal That His Family’s Broadway Bank Paid Kick Backs in Mortgage Fraud Deals with Financial Ponzi Scheme Operators

The Senate Candidate Also Failed to Reveal that the Giannoulias Family Bank Paid a Settlement Valued at $6 Million to End the Lawsuit by U.S. Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission

As part of its continuing full disclosure by federal candidates program, The Committee on
Public Integrity and Integrity in the Courts has discovered that Alexi Giannoulias, Democratic candidate for US Senate from Illinois has misrepresented the record of Broadway Bank, the Chicago bank owned by his family. The actual facts as revealed in litigation brought by the US Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission reveal that Broadway Bank engaged in fraudulent loans with Wextrust, a finance company. Broadway Bank was subsequently seized by the SEC, and the chief officers of Wextrust are in jail.

During the last debate with Congressman Mark Kirk, Alexi Giannoulias was asked to comment on the activities of Broadway Bank, the main business asset of his family. Giannoulias said, “And let’s be clear, no one has ever suggested that the bank has ever done anything illegal, illicit, or improper. Never." He continued, "I will always tell you the truth. And that's what we need now more than ever. People are sick and tired of Washington, D.C. politics as usual."

Information is now coming to light that shows that Broadway Bank engaged in kick-backs and other lucrative deals with Ponzi scheme operators, who are now in jail.

Beginning in 2006, when Alexi Giannoulias was a loan officer at Broadway, the bank entered into a series of commercial loans in joint ventures with Wextrust Capital, a Chicago based lending company. Wextrust provided so-called “hard money” loans to developers, who could not find standard financing from banks. Hard money loans are provided at very high interest rates, up to 18-20% when the costs of so-called origination and finders fees are added.

Under the deals between Wextrust and Broadway Bank, evidence has been discovered showing that borrowers paid the bank high interest charges (12-14%), and then Broadway Bank kicked back 2-3% of the payments received to Broadway as part of a so-called loan servicing contract.

Also, it’s been established that throughout its years of operation, Wextrust was insolvent, making all of its mortgage deals void and fraudulent. That meant that all the joint mortgage deals marketed byBroadway Bank and Wextrust were illegal, illicit and improper.

Wextrust was seized and placed in control of a federal receiver by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in August 2008 for operating a $250 MM Ponzi scheme. The SEC found that Wextrust operated a massive Ponzi-type scheme from 2004 that raised approximately $255 million from approximately 1,200 investors in the US and other countries. The Receiver confirmed that Wextrust diverted, co-mingled and misappropriated those funds, in a series of unauthorized transactions. The US Department of Justice filed criminal complaints against Wextrust's principal officers who were immediately arrested, and who remain in custody. The company president, Steven Byers, entered a guilty plea in April 2010, and is awaiting sentencing.

Broadway Bank was a partner with Wextrust in the series of fraudulent loans. Alexi Giannoulias was a loan officer when Wextrust began its dealings with Broadway Bank. Evidence has been uncovered by the SEC showing that Alexi’s brother, Demetri, personally handled these mortgage loans with Wextrust.

In April 2010, just before being seized by the Illinois and US banking authorities, Broadway Bankagreed to forgo $5 million in claims and to pay up to $800,000 in cash to settle litigation with the federal Receiver of Wextrust. This Settlement clearly reflected a payment by Broadway Bank to settle claims by the Securities and Exchange Commission and avoid liability for illegal actions in connection with its financing transactions with Wextrust.

For additional information please contact: John T. Whitely at 202-374-3680

About The Committee on Public Integrity
The Committee On Public Integrity reviews both past and present cases to provide an independent assessment and analysis of the facts. With respect to past cases, the committee will hear from persons who maintain that they have been treated unfairly and unjustly. As part of its efforts, the committee is actively seeking documentation and analysis of various issues. Committee members include individuals who through their personal and professional lives have established a reputation of responsibility and fairness.

For Detailed Information to Referenced Documentation, See Below:






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