The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into a series of payments made by a company controlled by Tuscarora businessman "Smokin'" Joe Anderson to Mayor Vince Anello in July and November 2003, shortly before and just after Anello was elected mayor.
At least two former Anderson associates have been interviewed by agents from the Niagara Falls FBI office, where official corruption has become the "number one priority," sources said.
Documents made available to the Reporter last week show that Anello received three checks, totaling $40,000, from Aarrow Brokers, a company then run by Anderson and his former wife, Gail Anderson.
On July 30, 2003, barely a month before the hotly contested Democratic mayoral primary, two checks for $15,000 each were written to Anello. Michael Gawel, a convicted felon who works for Anderson, submitted the check request form to the company.
While one part of the request form indicates that the payments were for "electrical services later," elsewhere the document contains the word "loan." And while one of the checks is dated July 30, the day the request was made, the other is dated June 20, more than a month earlier.
Anello, who was then a city Councilman, went on to win the primary, eking out a narrow victory over challenger Paul Dyster by a little more than 300 votes despite outspending his opponent by a wide margin. He then went on to unseat incumbent mayor Irene Elia in a landslide.
Eight days after his victory in the general election, on Nov. 12, another check written on the Aarrow Brokers account went to Anello. The check request form for the $10,000 draft has the word "contribution" scribbled out and the words "loan -- promissory note" substituted.
None of the payments were reported by the Anello campaign to the county Board of Elections, and no record exists of any "loan" being paid back to Aarrow Brokers. In any event, election law states that a candidate seeking municipal office in Niagara Falls may receive no more than $1,000 from any individual donor during a primary race and no more than $1,400 in a general election.
Federal investigators are looking into whether Anello included the money on his 2003 income tax returns, sources said.
Aarrow Brokers dissolved early in 2004, after Anderson and his wife split up. While Anderson authorized the payments to Anello, the checks themselves were signed by Gail Anderson, records show.
Since his election, Anello has enjoyed a close relationship with Anderson, who has benefited from his dealings with the city.
On March 29, 2004, three months after taking office, Anello negotiated a 30-year lease agreement with one of Anderson's companies for the East Mall, the pedestrian walkway in front of the former Wintergarden -- now known as Smokin' Joe's Family Fun Center, a piece of city property Anderson purchased during the Elia administration.
While millions of dollars in federal, state and local funding had been poured into the East Mall over the years, Anderson's no-bid contract called for initial payments of just $7,500 a year.
Attorneys Paul Grenga and Brian Meilleur, who have offices in one of Anderson's Third Street buildings, have partnered with him on his various Niagara Falls enterprises. The attorneys have longstanding ties to City Administrator Daniel Bristol and, in 2001, Grenga handled the sale of the Anello Wine Place building for another former Anderson associate, John Caputo.
In addition to Smokin' Joe's Family Fun Center and the East Mall, the group controls the adjacent Quality Inn, as well as Club Malibu and the former Niagara Mohawk and House of the Lord building on Third Street.
While activity along the East Mall was sporadic last year, more than 30 events are planned for the coming season, including the city-subsidized Maid of the Mist Pageant and the Taste of Niagara Food and Wine Festival. Sponsorships for the events are currently being sold at prices ranging from $500 to $20,000.
Overseeing the lucrative East Mall program will be none other than Michael Gawel, who submitted the July 30, 2003, check request form that resulted in payments to Anello totaling $30,000. A disbarred attorney and disgraced former city councilman with a lengthy criminal record that includes a stretch in federal prison for money laundering, Gawel was most recently arrested in December on domestic violence charges.
And just two weeks ago, he was involved in a confrontation with state police on the Tuscarora Reservation. No arrests were made in connection with that incident, which stemmed from a property dispute between Anderson and his former wife.
Gawel has also had a hand in staging events at Anderson's Club Malibu, a Third Street tavern best known for the number of arrests it has generated for underage drinking. Anello and other city officials have been known to patronize the establishment, which benefited last year from a pair of grants -- totaling $90,000 -- from the city and the state's USA Niagara Development Corp.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | May 3 2005 |