Brian Maloney has the lowdown on flailing lib radio network Air America’s legal and financial troubles at The Radio Equalizer. The New York State Attorney General’s office has now transferred the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club case involving Air America to its criminal prosecutions bureau. You won’t believe who finally covered the story. Yup, the “paper of record” that has ignored the story for more than a year:

A Bronx charity will pay the city back $625,000 that had been intended for children and the elderly but was improperly lent to Air America Radio, a network known for its liberal programming and hosts like Al Franken.

The settlement, announced yesterday by the city’s Department of Investigation, is the latest but probably not the final chapter in an investigation that began last year.

The state attorney general’s office is continuing to look into the misuse of the funds, and the case has been transferred from its charities bureau to the criminal prosecutions bureau, two people close to the investigation said yesterday.

City investigators found that the charity, based in Co-op City and formerly known as the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, lent $875,000 to Air America Radio. At the city’s request, the network put the money into an escrow account while the investigation continued.

Now, $625,000 will be returned to the city and $250,000 will be turned over to the charity for its operations. The $625,000 recouped by the city includes $250,000 from the Department of Youth and Community Development and the Department for the Aging that the charity misused from 2001 to 2004 and $375,000 in overpayments from the Department of Education to a nursery and kindergarten run by the charity from 1997 to 2006.

“This is a somewhat shocking case,” said the commissioner of investigation, Rose Gill Hearn, who described the circumstances as “clearly unusual.”

Uh, yeah.

***
Previous:

Air America-stiffed charity still waiting for its $875,000
Air America: The end?
Air America: Out of air in NYC
Air America: Top exec bails
Air America: sinking ship
Air America: Losing flagship station?
Air America: The saga continues
Inside Air America: Al’s pal bails…and Philly station ditches, too
Air America: Groveling for cash
Inside Air America: The loan scandal deepens
Air America scrambles
Inside Air America: Al Franken’s lying lies
Inside Air America: The Sheldon Drobny Files
Wednesday scandal updates
New York Post: The Money Pit
Inside Air America: The Lizz Winstead case
Fraudulent Conveyance 101
Multicultural Radio says Air America owes it $1.5 million
Inside Air America: An investigative blog report (Part II)
Air Enron: Morning update
Inside Air America: An investigative blog report (Part I)
Air Enron: Al Franken needs help
Air Enron updates
Air Enron: The dam bursts
Air Enron: NYTimes corrects
Air Enron: MSM errs and lags
Air Enron: The NYTimes speaks! (or rather, whispers)
Air Enron: Heads roll, victims shafted
Air Enron: No letting up
Air Enron: Franken speaks again
Air Enron: Elite media blackout contd.
Air Enron: quotes of the day
Air Enron: Spitzer steps in
Air Enron: questions, questions
Air Enron: the blame game
Air Enron: thumb-twiddling MSM
Silence of the race hustlers
Air Enron: Al Franken speaks
Air Deadbeat: the saga continues
The Air America loophole
Air America is scrambling
Air America: Don’t blame us
Air America: Stealing from poor kids?!

comments (0)   trackbacks (2)