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Air America-stiffed charity
still waiting for its $875,000

By Michelle Malkin  •  September 14, 2006 07:52 AM

The poor Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club is still waiting for Air America to pay it back.

Details are buried at the bottom of the New York Sun’s story following up on liberal blog Think Progress’s claim that Air America will soon file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy:

Last year, Air America was involved in a scandal involving a boys and girls club based in Coop City in the Bronx, prompting a probe by the city’s Department of Investigation and the office of state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer. The probe is still under way.

While he was helping launch the radio network, a former director of Air America, Evan Montvel Cohen, simultaneously served as development director for the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club. Mr. Cohen told the Sun that he arranged the transfer of $875,000 from the club to help the start-up radio network. He could end up facing criminal charges for arranging the transfer.

Ownership of Air America has since changed hands; the current owner, Piquant LLC, deposited $875,000 into an attorney-controlled escrow account to be released to Gloria Wise when the DOI completes its investigation and authorizes payment. Gloria Wise was badly damaged by the scandal, including losing its affiliation with Boys & Girls Club of America.

Yesterday, a spokeswoman for the DOI, Emily Gest, said the transfer has not yet occurred. “DOI expects Air America to uphold its commitment to repay victims of the scheme,” Ms. Gest said.

Other creditors are left holding the bag, too. NYDaily News:

Air America reportedly laid off several staffers this week, and there were reports it is behind on other cash obligations, including payment to Multicultural Broadcasting for time it leased on Chicago and Los Angeles stations.

Meanwhile, Brian Maloney fills you in on left-wing blog dupes, Air America’s pathetic blame the right-wingers spin, and an interesting tidbit about Al Franken not reported anywhere else:

[W]e’ve watched Rob Glaser, George Soros and others swoop in at the last second to save this operation in the past and there’s no reason to believe it couldn’t happen again.

At the same time, former Clear Channel executive Jon Sinton has felt that he could attract buyers for the network and had been talking to at least two potential parties when this “bankruptcy” story hit the headlines.

And contrary to the “concerns” Al Franken is sharing with the media, we know that he recently signed a contract extension that takes him well into next year with the network.

If he’s so worried, then why did he re-sign?

Good question. Is there anyone besides Brian who’ll ask it?

Stay tuned. There’s muuuuch more coming.

***

The NYPost sniffs out AA’s whiff of bankruptcy.

***

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Comments

  1. #1
    On May 2nd, 2008 at 4:05 pm, Lee Hazel said:

    I always thought it interesting that Air America couldn’t find a different name. This one belonged to the CIA during the Vietnam era.
    What a “freak” show AA was! (past tense deliberate)

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Categories: Air America, Al Franken