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Niles official identifies files state and federal investigators seized Thursday
By Ed Runyan
NILES
The Niles zoning and building inspector says at least two of the six investigators who took records from his offices Thursday were the same ones who spent two weeks or more there in February or March.
Anthony Vigorito said six investigators on Thursday took all of the records and drawings relating to the construction of the Cafaro Co. headquarters at Eastwood Mall; the completed Residence Inn by Marriott and Hampton Inn and Suites, both at the Eastwood Mall complex; and the Italian Marketplace in the former Alberni’s Restaurant space on Youngstown-Warren Road.
A recent press release about the Marketplace’s ribbon-cutting ceremony said it is owned by Bobby and Pam Allegretto DeVicchio.
The Hampton Inn will go on the site of the former Expo Center.
Also Thursday, investigators searched the current Cafaro Co. corporate offices on Belmont Avenue in Youngstown, but the company’s spokesman, Joe Bell, said he didn’t know the reason for the search.
Investigators spent more than two weeks at the building and zoning office in February or March taking files in an apparently “random” fashion, Vigorito said.
“I just think it was because we were in fiscal emergency, so I thought they were just checking every department,” Vigorito said of the February-March investigation. The Ohio Auditor’s Office placed Niles in fiscal emergency in October 2014.
Vigorito said he doesn’t know why the investigators zeroed in on the four mentioned projects Thursday, but two of the investigators were from the Ohio Auditor’s Office and also were part of the February-March investigation.
A spokesman for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office said Thursday’s seizure of records was carried out by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Ohio Auditor’s Office and FBI. He said the work was part of an ongoing investigation but refused to specify what they type of investigation.
Investigators from the Ohio Auditor’s Office also searched Niles Mayor Ralph Infante’s office in October and took documents.
Brittany Halpin, press secretary for Ohio Auditor Dave Yost, said Monday she could not comment on the reasons why investigators seized documents Thursday but said it was done with a warrant and said it is part of “several projects ongoing in Niles.” She said she did not know what court issued the warrant.
The Vindicator filed a public records request with Vigorito on Monday, asking for records relating to building department fees paid by the owners of the four projects involved in Thursday’s search, but Vigorito said the investigators took all of those files.
He said he will provide copies of the documents after they are returned.