A special prosecutor is investigating ‘alleged illegal activity’ in Niles
and Ed Runyan
NILES
A senior assistant Ohio attorney general is serving as special prosecutor investigating “alleged illegal activity” in Niles “involving government officials and others,” according to a Trumbull County judge.
The investigation by Dan Kasaris of the AG’s office includes but is “not limited to theft in office, tampering with records, falsification and dereliction of duty,” according to Tuesday’s judgment entry by Judge Andrew D. Logan of common pleas court.
Judge Logan made the appointment at the request of county Prosecutor Dennis Watkins.
In a prepared statement, Watkins wrote that Kasaris was appointed “to handle the ongoing investigation by the Ohio State Auditor’s Office and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office of the city of Niles regarding possible criminal conduct.”
Watkins declined to comment further. Dan Tierney of the attorney general’s office had no comment Tuesday on the investigation.
A source close to the investigation confirmed the Cafaro Co. and outgoing Niles Mayor Ralph A. Infante are subjects of the investigation.
Attempts Tuesday by The Vindicator to reach Infante were unsuccessful.
Mayor-elect Thomas Scarnecchia, who takes over Jan. 1, said, “They must have something if they appointed a prosecutor. It’s upsetting and concerning. It’s another black eye for the city, and we don’t need any more.”
Longtime Councilman Steven Papalas said, “In some ways, I’m not surprised. I’m disappointed, very disappointed.”
Papalas said he and council President Robert Marino Jr. “have voiced our concerns for years,” but there’s been resistance within city government to take the necessary steps to get the finances in order.
Marino said he has been “working with the state auditor since they came into town. They are doing their due diligence, as we would expect them to do.”
The Kasaris appointment comes after agents with the auditor’s special investigation unit, the FBI and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation – the latter is overseen by the AG – seized records Thursday from the city’s zoning and building inspection department.
The two state agencies started the investigation a year ago, according to Judge Logan’s judgment entry.
A receipt given to Niles officials of the evidence taken lists drawings and blueprints for 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; the Area Agency on Aging 11 office, also at the mall; and the Italian Marketplace in the former Alberini’s Restaurant space on Youngstown-Warren Road.
The receipt also lists as taken a banker’s box containing city building department files for each of those construction projects, and that all the evidence is being kept by the auditor’s office.
Anthony Vigorito, the city’s zoning and building inspector, said Monday that two state auditor’s office members spent about two weeks in February or March looking through documents.
Also Thursday, BCI agents searched the Youngstown headquarters of the Cafaro Co., a national real-estate development company. Agents are required to leave an inventory record when doing such searches – as they did in Niles – but Joe Bell, a Cafaro spokesman, said he hasn’t seen it.
“They arrived and asked for access to information, and we cooperated,” he said.
When asked about the special prosecutor in the Niles investigation, Bell said: “I have no idea why they’d be looking at that. It was mystifying to hear the news out of Niles. I don’t know what to make of it.”
On Oct. 14, 2014, a week after the state auditor put Niles in fiscal emergency, the agency’s special investigation unit searched for records in Infante’s office. That unit investigates possible fraud.
After the search, Infante said it’s “not a concern for me because I’m the one who asked for the financial, performance and physical audits. They’re looking into the records of anyone in any department who collects money.”
He also said at the time: “They certainly didn’t take anything like a computer.”
The amount of income tax collected at the mall was questioned last month by Tim Lintner, the city’s state-appointed financial supervisor, and Mary Ann Coates, a certified public accountant. Coates sits on the Niles Financial Planning and Supervision Commission.
Linter, a state auditor employee, said last month that only $20,000 was collected from the Eastwood complex. He cited a much-larger complex in Westlake that had statistically much greater success by using an income-tax collection agency.
Coates said at that meeting that collections by the city’s income-tax department are insufficient.
Attempts Tuesday by The Vindicator to reach city Auditor Giovanne Merlo, Treasurer Robert Swauger and Service Director Neil Buccino were unsuccessful. Vigorito declined to comment.
Also, Brittany Halpin, a spokeswoman for the auditor’s office, declined Tuesday to talk about the criminal investigation.
She only said: “We have several ongoing projects in Niles. They’re in fiscal emergency, and we have audit work.”
Meanwhile, Tierney said he could neither confirm nor deny that the Cafaro search was related to the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-corruption case in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. In that case, Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally, ex-Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino and attorney Martin Yavorcik face a total of 83 criminal counts including being part of a criminal enterprise, bribery, conspiracy, perjury and money laundering. They’ve pleaded not guilty.
Court documents claim the three are part of a criminal enterprise – which also includes the Cafaro Co. and Anthony Cafaro Sr., its retired head, though neither have been indicted – that tried to stop and impede a county agency from leaving a property owned by a Cafaro Co. subsidiary and move to Oakhill, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center owned by the county.
Kasaris is the lead prosecutor on the Oakhill case, as well as a related case in Mahoning County against Sciortino, and successfully prosecuted former Mahoning Probate Judge Mark Belinky.
Contributor: Vindicator correspondent Jordan Cohen