Extortion charge added to former speaker's slate
1
BOSTON - Federal prosecutors added extortion to the list of charges facing former state House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and gave details on what they said was another scheme to enlist DiMasi's help securing management contracts for public buildings.
An earlier indictment, unveiled in June, alleged DiMasi and three associates rigged two lucrative state contracts for the software company Cognos in exchange for payments, with DiMasi pocketing $57,000.
A superseding indictment released Tuesday added the extortion charge, alleging DiMasi accepted payments from Cognos and a second member of the scheme, Joseph Lally, knowing the payments were in exchange for helping the Burlington, Mass.-based firm win the contracts.
DiMasi agreed "to receive, and cause others to receive, money from Lally and Cognos in return for performing official acts as a member and speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives that would further the interests of Lally and Cognos," the indictment said.
The indictment also gave details of an alleged scheme to use DiMasi's political muscle to help win public building management contracts.
According to the indictment, DiMasi's friend and former accountant Richard Vitale in 2006 formed a property management company called Genesis Management Group LLC with two partners, identified by investigators only as GP-1 and GP-2.
The goal of the new company, formed in Delaware, was to bid on contracts to manage state, local and federal buildings.
According to the indictment, Vitale met with DiMasi to discuss the plan and later had Genesis information delivered to DiMasi's Statehouse office. It said DiMasi assigned a senior staff member, unidentified only as SS-1, to help Genesis win contracts.
As part of the deal, the indictment alleges, DiMasi was to receive "hidden future interests" in the company.
In a series of e-mails, Vitale and one of his partners discussed how the ownership of the company should be handled. The indictment alleges Vitale sent $30,000 to his partner to cover Vitale's and DiMasi's one-third interest in the company.
"$30k is on its way," read one of the e-mails from Vitale. "I want to be clear that my friend (DiMasi) is part of my 1/3."
The indictment, which doesn't say if Genesis was awarded contracts, also adds the charge that DiMasi obstructed and delayed interstate commerce.
DiMasi's lawyer, Thomas Kiley, said he wasn't surprised by the new indictment. He said his client will prove his innocence in court.
"The indictment essentially raises new theories on the same facts, and we will plead not guilty when the case is arraigned, and we will demonstrate that we are not guilty," Kiley said Tuesday.
DiMasi, Lally, Vitale and Richard McDonough were arraigned in U.S. District Court in Boston in June on eight conspiracy and fraud charges; Lally additionally was charged with money laundering.
They pleaded not guilty to the charges.
DiMasi, a Boston Democrat first elected to the House in 1978, served as speaker from 2004 until his resignation earlier this year, the period during which the bid-rigging schemes are alleged to have taken place.
He faced 20 years in prison for each of the original seven counts of wire and mail fraud and five years for a conspiracy charge if convicted.
Prosecutors said the scheme was hatched in late 2004, when DiMasi, Lally and McDonough arranged to have payments funneled to DiMasi in exchange for his helping Cognos land the first contract - a $5.2 million sale of software to the Department of Education. They said Vitale was part of the scheme.
Cognos then targeted a $15 million contract selling management software to the Executive Office of Administration and Finance. After an initial effort failed, DiMasi persisted, reassuring a Cognos executive during a golf game that the plan was on track, the original indictment said.
Prosecutors said Cognos cooperated with the initial indictment, which followed a series of Boston Globe stories on DiMasi's ethics troubles.
