Albany — The mobile phone of the former chairman of the New York State Police Charity Association was seized last week when State Police Special Investigation Units executed a search warrant at the union’s Albany headquarters and the offices of affiliated charities.
Two people briefed on the matter said state police investigators also copied the computer’s hard drive when they retrieved the box of records from the PBA’s office over the course of two days starting Tuesday. During the raid, first reported by the Times-Union, investigators found former PBA president Thomas H. Seized. Source.
The union raid, which represents thousands of state police officers, follows allegations of widespread policy violations, including undisclosed conflicts of interest and questionable financial and employment practices.
The State Police investigation is led by members of the Financial Crimes Division investigating the spending, expenses and compensation of numerous current and former PBA officials. The two people briefed on the investigation said the investigation had intensified in recent weeks and was focused on countless bank accounts, credit cards and other financial issues involving transactions and spending from years ago. Told.
This follows a recent uprising among the PBA’s board of directors, which is led by a coalition of troopers in western New York. They began examining the union’s finances about a year ago, following the inauguration of a new treasurer, Charles W. Murphy, who began examining the organization’s spending practices. Among these discoveries was PBA’s long-term agreement with Epic Risk Solutions, a small brokerage in Goshen, Orange County. This company is founded and operated by Michael S. Klugman. New York Troopers PBA.
Mungeer and Richard E. Mulvaney, longtime PBA general counsel and former New York Police Department lieutenants, both hold state-issued insurance licenses and their credentials include an Epic Risk Solutions address (Mungeer business email) is listed. In an interview with The Times-Union last year, Klugman told the Times-Union that neither Mangia nor Mulvaney received any compensation from his company.
However, on November 18, the PBA board issued a bulletin to member troopers outlining its previous decision to cut ties with the Orange County insurance company. In addition to citing Mulvaney and Mangia’s ties to the company, they said Krugman “confirmed that Richard Mulvaney has a financial interest in the company. These licenses and Epic Risk Solutions and relationship, and financial interests, were not disclosed to the board.”
Mulvaney and Mungeer both resigned from the organization in October, and both recently retained criminal defense counsel. Their departure comes weeks before the PBA announced in a newsletter to members in early November that the board “continues to review its financial practices and dealings with vendors.”
Another person catching investigators’ attention is a retired police officer listed as executive director of the Signal 30 Benefit Fund, which raised millions of dollars for philanthropic purposes, according to law enforcement sources. This is Gordon Warnock, an officer and a longtime PBA officer. His hard drive on the computer was also copied in his Signal 30 office on Howard Street in Albany, just behind his PBA headquarters on State Street, a block from the State Capitol, the sources said. Stated.
Warnock previously served as Union Representative for State Police Force F and later as Second Vice President of the PBA. In that role, Warnock said he is a PBA-registered lobbyist and also oversees the union’s Political Action Committee, according to PBA sources. He has an office at the PBA headquarters, they said.
Warnock operates a registered lobbying firm, Hudson Strategies Government Relations, with an address in Huguenot, Orange County.
Both Mulvaney and Warnock’s compensation are listed under the section listing employees, trustees and directors on Signal 30’s 2020 tax return. Mulvaney’s title was “Legal Counsel” and he “was paid $229,108 from affiliates. He worked about two hours a week at Signal 30 and 40 hours a week at affiliates (probably PBA). Warnock’s He was listed as earning $79,186 a year, 15 hours a week at Signal 30 and 25 hours a week at another organization.
It’s unclear if last week’s court-sanctioned investigation also targeted the “Surgeons Group,” the PBA’s fundraising arm that, like the Signal 30 Benefit Fund, offers honorary membership to paying supporters. The Surgeons Group, which shares an office with the PBA, has ID cards and the “PBA State Police Surgeon.”
These placards sparked controversy in Manhattan. There, residents say cars plastered with Trooper Surgeon credentials often violate parking rules but evade ticketing by the New York Police Department. Police officers were instructed to give those qualified drivers a break during the traffic stop.
Meanwhile, Signal 30 officials declined to answer detailed questions about their business activities.
“Signal 30 is aware of the investigation and is cooperating with authorities on this matter,” a spokesperson said in a statement last week as the search unfolded. It is a non-profit organization that does outstanding work to assist members of the New York State Police Department and their families, especially during tragic deaths, illnesses, injuries and losses.”
The search warrant was executed last week while Gov. Kathy Hochul delivered a state address at the nearby Capitol. Ho-chul’s office did not immediately respond over the weekend to a question about whether the governor was briefed about the search before it took place.
The PBA’s general counsel, Daniel Strollo, issued a statement to the Times Union last week saying the PBA had been cooperating with investigators for “months.”
“The PBA’s current leadership team is committed to organizational integrity and welcomes the Special Investigations Unit’s assistance in uncovering past misconduct by individuals who are no longer members of the PBA,” he added. I got
Mungeer has declined to comment since leaving the PBA.
In early October, the PBA Board of Directors decided to establish a “Financial Soundness Committee to review spending and employment practices”. State police sources said the spending concerns raised centered on spending on fancy dinners and other social events involving alcohol. The board has also abolished the payment of “leadership incentives”, although it is unclear who received them and how much they were paid.
At the same October 6 meeting, Board members said that a two-thirds majority of the Board “had reasonable grounds to believe that such individuals, in their best interests, engaged in harmful conduct.” proposed to change the union’s articles of incorporation so that someone could be suspended “if”. Association interests. This change appears to have been made explicitly to remove Munger.
After the board held a special meeting on October 11th and decided to vote on the change, Munger quickly told his colleagues he was “taking a voluntary leave of absence.” A few weeks later, his Munger, who had been president of the union since 2009, handed in his resignation.
PBA’s first vice president, Andrew C. Davis, took over as acting president after Mangia took a leave of absence and remained in that position until the election of a new president.
