Full employment for Attornies? Will Wisconsin's Future look Bleak For Homeowners, Investors and Others? Lawsuits over shifted tax burdens likely?
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This document is to provide additional information on the New York tax assssors case that has some similarities to what happened here in Wisconsin. This document contains editted excerpts from newspaper articles. I chopped out sections that I felt weren't necessary for you to read, because the information doesn't apply to the matter at hand and/or it was redundant to earlier excerpts. I've included references back to the original articles, in case you want to satisfy yourself whether I've editted them unfairly. .
Document URL: Link Copyright New York Times Company Jan 8, 2003 For the last year, New York's powerful real estate industry has been crackling with tension as federal investigators have pressed for the names of any property owners who may have knowingly benefited from a long-running bribery scandal. That possibility all but evaporated late Monday afternoon. Albert Schussler, 85, the man indicted last February as the ringleader of the bribery scheme -- and the one person who investigators thought could tell exactly how the scheme worked and who benefited -- died after a severe stroke. In the scandal, city assessors lowered the tax bills for many of Mr. Schussler's clients, the owners of some of New York's most valuable skyscrapers, hotels and apartment houses. So far, 15 assessors have pleaded guilty to bribery charges related to the allegations against Mr. Schussler. For investigators at the United States attorney's office and the city's Department of Investigation, who have tried to break a case against corruption in the city's Finance Department for at least 14 years, Mr. Schussler's death was frustrating.
While the investigation is continuing, one law enforcement official said that investigators had been hoping that Mr. Schussler might provide information about developers who may have been involved in the scheme, and that his death had ended that hope. But the owners of the 562 properties that prosecutors claim benefited from the illegal scheme say they were unaware of any wrongdoing. Prosecutors vowed yesterday to press forward with the case. Two assessors, Joseph Iovino and Fady Sidaross, are to go on trial Jan. 27. A former investigator for the city's Department of Investigation has pleaded guilty to related charges, and another assessor, Joseph Marino, pleaded guilty in 2000 to taking over $4 million in bribes from Mr. Schussler in exchange for lowering the tax bills on some properties. ''The death of Albert Schussler is certainly a stunning event in this case,'' Rose Gill Hearn, commissioner of the investigative department, said in a statement released yesterday. ''The impact of the tax assessors' corruption scheme with which he was charged cost the city an enormous revenue loss and will hurt the city for years to come. We will continue to pursue all remedies available for civil recovery of the money that should have gone into the city's coffers. The investigation will continue unabated.'' Prosecutors and city officials say the bribery scheme cost the city $160 million in tax revenues over the past four years alone. They have moved in court to recoup the money from the assets of Mr. Schussler by forfeiture, and from the assessors who have pleaded guilty, by making restitution a condition of their sentence. Mr. Schussler worked for 30 years as a city assessor before retiring in 1967. According to the indictment, he became a tax consultant and immediately established the bribery operation, starting with a friend still working in the assessor's office. It eventually encompassed 15 of the 38 city assessors in Manhattan, who prosecutors say took $10 million in bribes to lower assessments for hundreds of properties. According to the indictment, Mr. Schussler worked with three lieutenants, who met the assessors at restaurants downtown, passing envelopes of cash and lists of properties whose assessments were to be altered. The 15 assessors who pleaded guilty to bribery said that they never actually met Mr. Schussler, whom they often referred to, in taped conversations, as the Old Man, or A.S. Investigators did persuade Mr. Schussler's three lieutenants to cooperate with the investigation, and one of them, Stephen E. McArdle, recorded his meetings with the assessors. Still, it was Mr. Schussler who had the clients and the contacts with some of Manhattan's biggest landlords.
Publication title: New York Post. New York, N.Y.: Jan 9, 2003. pg. 017 Document URL: Link (Copyright 2003, The New York Post. All Rights Reserved) Schussler had faced 25 years in prison on racketeering, bribery and mail-fraud charges.
Document URL: Link Copyright Daily News, L.P. Jan 18, 2003 Albert Schussler is dead, but the charges against him live on. Schussler died before he could be tried on charges of running a multimillion-dollar property tax bribery scheme. Now, the feds are preparing to go after him in the afterlife, the Daily News has learned. Speaking on condition of anonymity, sources familiar with the case said prosecutors in Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jim Comey's office plan to file a civil suit to seize assets linked to 14 of Schussler's real estate partnerships. Prosecutors have yet to drop the criminal case against Schussler because they first need to bring a civil forfeiture suit to seize his assets before they can file a legal motion to toss the charges. In the criminal indictment, prosecutors sought to seize millions of dollars of Schussler's real estate holdings. Pushing for civil forfeiture would allow the city to recover some of Schussler's allegedly ill-gotten gains from a bribery scheme prosecutors believe dates back some 35 years, the sources said. A civil case would require a lower threshold of proof, one source said. Freeze in place Prosecutors already have put a freeze on Schussler's share of four partnerships related to the Ansonia, as well as 10 related to other New York properties. In recent years, they charge, Schussler paid out $10 million in bribes to low-paid city workers to massage the figures when assessing properties.
Document URL: Link Copyright Daily News, L.P. Feb 27, 2003 A year after 18 assessors were charged in the biggest tax ripoff in city history, officials are about to unveil a major overhaul of the easily corruptible property assessment system. The city's Finance and Investigation departments are secretly drawing up reforms that would prevent any more assessors from pocketing millions of dollars in bribes to cut taxes for wealthy landlords. On. Feb. 25, 2002, the indictments of the current and former assessors on federal bribery charges rocked the city's real estate community. Assessors accepted more than $10 million over three decades to lower the value - and therefore the property taxes - of hundreds of buildings, mostly in wealthy Manhattan neighborhoods, prosecutors said. Of the 18 charged, 15 pleaded guilty, two are going to trial and one - alleged mastermind Albert Schussler - died last month. But the system that allowed the assessors to act like bureaucratic cowboys - barely supervised and never audited - still needs to be mended. After the indictments, the Finance Department made some obvious quick fixes, but the findings of a preliminary study suggest just how daunting real reform will be: Property owners or their representatives are used to meeting privately with assessors who work alone, unmonitored. Assessors make multimillion-dollar decisions on property values without filing personal financial disclosures. The city's antiquated appraisal computers lack any way to confirm who entered what data when. Despite heavy reliance on paperwork, the city has no central tax appraisal files. Assessors keep personal records. About a third of some $160 million in illicit tax savings in recent years can be traced to a dozen owners, according to a News review of city property data. All declined to comment and, through their lawyers or spokesmen, denied any knowledge of bribes. Prosecutors have failed to turn up evidence that any building owners knew anything, and the investigative trail went cold with Schussler's death.
Document URL: Link Copyright Daily News, L.P. Mar 22, 2002 Only a full overhaul of the way the city assesses property taxes will fix a system described as outmoded, complex, understaffed and underfunded, officials said yesterday. Suggestions included a formula that replaces the opinions of assessors with a percentage of the rents in individual buildings. "It's a very complex and complicated process. And if we really are going to get rid of corruption, let's change it," said Steve Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York. Spinola said the city should consider taxing office buildings based on a flat-rate system or percentage of rents that would remove the subjectivity of individual assessors from the process. "It may be cleaner and more straightforward," Spinola said. "We should take away as much discretion as possible." City Finance commissioner Martha E. Stark, new to her job, likened what had gone on in the department to "organized crime." She has suspended the 15 indicted assessors and reassigned the head of the Manhattan office. She has also ordered the reexamination of assessments of the 562 buildings listed in the federal government's indictment. Lawyer Jeffrey Golkin argued that other property owners - not the city - bore the cost of the corruption. Since the city expects to collect a certain amount each year from property taxes - about $9 billion last year - any shortfalls have to be made up with higher assessments on other buildings. "There is absolutely going to be a shifting to other people who are going to bear the burden," Golkin said. Golkin is currently preparing lawsuits for owners of about a dozen residential buildings who claim they were overcharged by the Finance Department. He estimated damages in "the tens of millions and possibly in the hundreds of millions of dollars."
Document URL: Link Copyright New York Times Company Jan 8, 2003 For the last year, New York's powerful real estate industry has been crackling with tension as federal investigators have pressed for the names of any property owners who may have knowingly benefited from a long-running bribery scandal. That possibility all but evaporated late Monday afternoon. Albert Schussler, 85, the man indicted last February as the ringleader of the bribery scheme -- and the one person who investigators thought could tell exactly how the scheme worked and who benefited -- died after a severe stroke. In the scandal, city assessors lowered the tax bills for many of Mr. Schussler's clients, the owners of some of New York's most valuable skyscrapers, hotels and apartment houses. So far, 15 assessors have pleaded guilty to bribery charges related to the allegations against Mr. Schussler. For investigators at the United States attorney's office and the city's Department of Investigation, who have tried to break a case against corruption in the city's Finance Department for at least 14 years, Mr. Schussler's death was frustrating.
While the investigation is continuing, one law enforcement official said that investigators had been hoping that Mr. Schussler might provide information about developers who may have been involved in the scheme, and that his death had ended that hope. But the owners of the 562 properties that prosecutors claim benefited from the illegal scheme say they were unaware of any wrongdoing. Prosecutors vowed yesterday to press forward with the case. Two assessors, Joseph Iovino and Fady Sidaross, are to go on trial Jan. 27. A former investigator for the city's Department of Investigation has pleaded guilty to related charges, and another assessor, Joseph Marino, pleaded guilty in 2000 to taking over $4 million in bribes from Mr. Schussler in exchange for lowering the tax bills on some properties. ''The death of Albert Schussler is certainly a stunning event in this case,'' Rose Gill Hearn, commissioner of the investigative department, said in a statement released yesterday. ''The impact of the tax assessors' corruption scheme with which he was charged cost the city an enormous revenue loss and will hurt the city for years to come. We will continue to pursue all remedies available for civil recovery of the money that should have gone into the city's coffers. The investigation will continue unabated.'' Prosecutors and city officials say the bribery scheme cost the city $160 million in tax revenues over the past four years alone. They have moved in court to recoup the money from the assets of Mr. Schussler by forfeiture, and from the assessors who have pleaded guilty, by making restitution a condition of their sentence. Mr. Schussler worked for 30 years as a city assessor before retiring in 1967. According to the indictment, he became a tax consultant and immediately established the bribery operation, starting with a friend still working in the assessor's office. It eventually encompassed 15 of the 38 city assessors in Manhattan, who prosecutors say took $10 million in bribes to lower assessments for hundreds of properties. According to the indictment, Mr. Schussler worked with three lieutenants, who met the assessors at restaurants downtown, passing envelopes of cash and lists of properties whose assessments were to be altered. The 15 assessors who pleaded guilty to bribery said that they never actually met Mr. Schussler, whom they often referred to, in taped conversations, as the Old Man, or A.S. Investigators did persuade Mr. Schussler's three lieutenants to cooperate with the investigation, and one of them, Stephen E. McArdle, recorded his meetings with the assessors. Still, it was Mr. Schussler who had the clients and the contacts with some of Manhattan's biggest landlords.
Publication title: New York Post. New York, N.Y.: Jan 9, 2003. pg. 017 Document URL: Link (Copyright 2003, The New York Post. All Rights Reserved) Schussler had faced 25 years in prison on racketeering, bribery and mail-fraud charges.
Document URL: Link Copyright Daily News, L.P. Jan 18, 2003 Albert Schussler is dead, but the charges against him live on. Schussler died before he could be tried on charges of running a multimillion-dollar property tax bribery scheme. Now, the feds are preparing to go after him in the afterlife, the Daily News has learned. Speaking on condition of anonymity, sources familiar with the case said prosecutors in Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jim Comey's office plan to file a civil suit to seize assets linked to 14 of Schussler's real estate partnerships. Prosecutors have yet to drop the criminal case against Schussler because they first need to bring a civil forfeiture suit to seize his assets before they can file a legal motion to toss the charges. In the criminal indictment, prosecutors sought to seize millions of dollars of Schussler's real estate holdings. Pushing for civil forfeiture would allow the city to recover some of Schussler's allegedly ill-gotten gains from a bribery scheme prosecutors believe dates back some 35 years, the sources said. A civil case would require a lower threshold of proof, one source said. Freeze in place Prosecutors already have put a freeze on Schussler's share of four partnerships related to the Ansonia, as well as 10 related to other New York properties. In recent years, they charge, Schussler paid out $10 million in bribes to low-paid city workers to massage the figures when assessing properties.
Document URL: Link Copyright Daily News, L.P. Feb 27, 2003 A year after 18 assessors were charged in the biggest tax ripoff in city history, officials are about to unveil a major overhaul of the easily corruptible property assessment system. The city's Finance and Investigation departments are secretly drawing up reforms that would prevent any more assessors from pocketing millions of dollars in bribes to cut taxes for wealthy landlords. On. Feb. 25, 2002, the indictments of the current and former assessors on federal bribery charges rocked the city's real estate community. Assessors accepted more than $10 million over three decades to lower the value - and therefore the property taxes - of hundreds of buildings, mostly in wealthy Manhattan neighborhoods, prosecutors said. Of the 18 charged, 15 pleaded guilty, two are going to trial and one - alleged mastermind Albert Schussler - died last month. But the system that allowed the assessors to act like bureaucratic cowboys - barely supervised and never audited - still needs to be mended. After the indictments, the Finance Department made some obvious quick fixes, but the findings of a preliminary study suggest just how daunting real reform will be: Property owners or their representatives are used to meeting privately with assessors who work alone, unmonitored. Assessors make multimillion-dollar decisions on property values without filing personal financial disclosures. The city's antiquated appraisal computers lack any way to confirm who entered what data when. Despite heavy reliance on paperwork, the city has no central tax appraisal files. Assessors keep personal records. About a third of some $160 million in illicit tax savings in recent years can be traced to a dozen owners, according to a News review of city property data. All declined to comment and, through their lawyers or spokesmen, denied any knowledge of bribes. Prosecutors have failed to turn up evidence that any building owners knew anything, and the investigative trail went cold with Schussler's death.
Document URL: Link Copyright Daily News, L.P. Mar 22, 2002 Only a full overhaul of the way the city assesses property taxes will fix a system described as outmoded, complex, understaffed and underfunded, officials said yesterday. Suggestions included a formula that replaces the opinions of assessors with a percentage of the rents in individual buildings. "It's a very complex and complicated process. And if we really are going to get rid of corruption, let's change it," said Steve Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York. Spinola said the city should consider taxing office buildings based on a flat-rate system or percentage of rents that would remove the subjectivity of individual assessors from the process. "It may be cleaner and more straightforward," Spinola said. "We should take away as much discretion as possible." City Finance commissioner Martha E. Stark, new to her job, likened what had gone on in the department to "organized crime." She has suspended the 15 indicted assessors and reassigned the head of the Manhattan office. She has also ordered the reexamination of assessments of the 562 buildings listed in the federal government's indictment. Lawyer Jeffrey Golkin argued that other property owners - not the city - bore the cost of the corruption. Since the city expects to collect a certain amount each year from property taxes - about $9 billion last year - any shortfalls have to be made up with higher assessments on other buildings. "There is absolutely going to be a shifting to other people who are going to bear the burden," Golkin said. Golkin is currently preparing lawsuits for owners of about a dozen residential buildings who claim they were overcharged by the Finance Department. He estimated damages in "the tens of millions and possibly in the hundreds of millions of dollars."
