43
State confirms, stays mum on records search
By Jordan Cohen
NILES
A spokesman for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office declined to reveal details Sunday night behind a records search at city hall last Thursday.
“All I can tell you is that the FBI, BCI [the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation] and the state auditor’s office conducted the search at Niles city offices,” Dan Tierney, spokesman for Attorney General Mike DeWine, said Sunday night. “This is related to an ongoing investigation, and I can’t comment on the nature of the investigation.”
Also Thursday, the agencies conducted a search of the current Cafaro Co. corporate offices on Belmont Avenue in Youngstown.
The Cafaro Co. is in the process of building a new corporate headquarters and Hampton Inn at the Eastwood Mall complex.
In Niles, the agencies seized records from the office of Anthony Vigorito, building and zoning inspector. Tierney would neither confirm nor discuss whether building permits are the subject of the investigation.
Meanwhile, city Auditor Giovanne Merlo said no one asked for any documents from him.
“I can tell you 100 percent that no one came to my office Thursday or Friday from the FBI or BCI asking for records,” Merlo said.
Joe Bell, director of Cafaro corporate communications, confirmed Sunday that the agencies were at the Youngstown office.
“[The agencies] requested information, and we complied and were cooperative, but I can’t tell you what they were looking for,” Bell told The Vindicator. “I don’t know whether they took anything from our office.”
Tierney also did not comment on that aspect of the probe and whether the Youngstown search is related to the Niles investigation or the ongoing Oakhill investigation that has led to criminal indictments against Youngstown Mayor John McNally, former Mahoning County Auditor Michael Sciortino and local attorney Martin Yavorcik.
Prosecutors allege that a local businessman, believed to be retired Cafaro President Anthony M. Cafaro Sr., conspired with the three to try to block county commissioners from purchasing Oakhill Renaissance Place as the relocation site for the county Job and Family Services offices.
JFS had been located at the Cafaro-owned Garland Plaza.