***Please note 9/28 note correction: Terrero was employed at Gloria Wise, but did not work under Cohen***

Inside Air America: The loan scandal deepens
by Brian Maloney and Michelle Malkin

9/14/05

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If you believe Air America, Al Franken, and their clueless defenders, the liberal radio network’s now-notorious financial problems with the Bronx-based Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club were solely the fault and purview of its previous ownership–and in particular, former AAR chairman Evan Cohen (the man Franken singled out as a “crook” on his radio show).

In one of its first statements on the matter in late July, Air America attempted to distance itself from “the allegations of mismanagement and corruption at Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club” and spoke of the charity’s dealings with Cohen as if they were past incidents divorced completely from the current management. On Fox News Channel’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” liberal radio host Bill Press (who is incidentally starting up his own left-wing radio network with dubious cash) stated repeatedly that Air America’s current management bore no responsibility for the shady loan and mimicked Franken’s blame game: “The point I’m making is, this [loan] has nothing to do with the people who are now on the air on Air America, or that are now running Air America.”

Al Franken, who signed a settlement agreement with Cohen and his partner, Rex Sorensen, that disclosed in detail the Gloria Wise liabilities in November 2004, continues to hide behind the “Didn’t know nuttin’” card. And Jon Sinton, Air America’s current president, told NRO’s Byron York:

“Only he knew what he was doing,” Sinton said of Cohen.

What Air America has failed to disclose is that at least one other of its officials held a key job at Gloria Wise. Yesterday, we confirmed with Martta Rose of Rubenstein Public Relations, which is representing the Boys & Girls Club branch, that Air America’s Vice President of Finance, Sinohe Terrero, worked at the inner-city charity as finance director from 2000-2002 [9/28 correction]: under Cohen. Though he left Gloria Wise for Air America before the controversial loan scheme was initiated, it strains credulity to believe that Terrero was completely in the dark about what kinds of things Cohen and his former colleagues were doing.

The city Department of Investigation has undoubtedly explored these ties by now.

But somehow, Air America neglected to mention Terrero’s employment with Gloria Wise in its public statements addressing the deepening scandal and the two government probes of the financial transactions between the two parties. Go figure.

So, what did Terrero know? When did he know it? Did Air America ignore his warnings and is he now paying the price? Terrero, as we first reported last week, has apparently resigned. Both Air America and Terrero have failed to return repeated calls and e-mails seeking comment, but we hear the radio network is preparing to acknowledge Terrero’s departure in the midst of another cash crunch and a thicket of legal crises.

In the meantime, there’s a continuing cloud over the escrow account set up by Air America’s lawyers for the $875,000 owed to Gloria Wise. The liberal radio network trumpeted its long-delayed move last week to repay the loan in full, but the escrow account is controlled by Air America’s lawyer and it isn’t clear that the full amount was in the account when Air America made its announcement. New York City Department of Investigation spokeswoman Emily Gest confirmed this week that the agency received a statement from Air America vouching for the full $875,000–but Gest emphatically declined to say when DOI received the statement.

As we understand it, Air America continues to be in jeopardy of failing to meet its payroll–even as it hits up investors for cash to fund the Gloria Wise repayment. The Radio Equalizer reported previously on these problems here.

Maybe it’s not such a bad time to be headed out the Air America door…

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Update:

David Lombino at The NY Sun confirms Terrero’s resignation, which we first reported on last week here.

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