Air America Funds Returned To a Bronx Boys and Girls Club

By DAVID LOMBINO, Staff Reporter of the Sun
September 28, 2006

A Boys and Girls Club in the Bronx has received $250,000 from the left-leaning radio network Air America in the wake of a probe by the New York City Department of Investigation.

Last summer, as part of DOI's investigation into the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club regarding improper expenditures of city funds, the agency discovered that the club had transferred $875,000 to Air America in the period leading up to the network's launch in March 2004. A co-founder of Air America, Evan Montvel Cohen, had simultaneously served as development director for the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club. Mr. Cohen later told The New York Sun that he arranged the transfer of $875,000 to the radio network from the club.

Ownership of Air America has since changed hands, and last September the current owner, Piquant LLC, deposited $875,000 into an attorney-controlled escrow account to be released to Gloria Wise when the DOI authorized payment.

Yesterday, the DOI announced that it had asked Air America to release the money. A statement from DOI said that $625,000 would be returned to a variety of city agencies after Gloria Wise was found to have misused the funds. The remaining $250,000 has been returned to Gloria Wise for its operating expenses.

Gloria Wise has been badly damaged by the scandal: It has lost its city funding and its affiliation with Boys & Girls Club of America.

The club's new chief executive, Fred Lewis, told the Associated Press that the investigation will likely lead to criminal charges.

"We want to put this thing behind us, rehab the agency and keep getting up off the mat," Mr. Lewis said. "I just pray here that now, we can start over."

The investigation was conducted in cooperation with the state attorney general's office. A spokeswoman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer declined to comment yesterday because the investigation is pending.