Air America Wires $825,000 To Club in Bronx

Air America Radio, the liberal network that in 2003-04 received $875,000 in transfers from the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club in the Bronx, announced last night that it had wired $825,000 into an attorney-controlled escrow account for the Bronx nonprofit group. It had previously sent $50,000 to the club.The transfers to Air America, which a former official of Gloria Wise described as interest-free loans, is part of a probe by the city’s Department of Investigation and the state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, into what officials termed “inappropriate transactions” by Gloria Wise. In a statement issued yesterday, Air America said the network would release the account to Gloria Wise when the city agency “completes its work and authorizes payment.”The decision to accelerate repayment to Gloria Wise comes more than a year after the current owners of the radio network, Piquant LLC, were made aware of the transfers when they conducted a forensic accounting study of dealings of the previous owner, Progress Media, and its director, Evan Montvel Cohen. While he was helping launch the radio network, Mr. Cohen simultaneously served as development director for Gloria Wise.Officials at Air America and its star, the comedian Al Franken, have blamed the transfers from the nonprofit organization in the Bronx on Mr. Cohen and Progress Media. According to Piquant, Mr. Cohen has had no affiliation with the radio network since the ownership changed hands in May 2004.Mr. Cohen told The New York Sun on Tuesday that other than himself, no one at Air America knew about the four separate transfers while they occurred, in late 2003 and early 2004. He said, however, that at least one other official from Gloria Wise knew “exactly where the money was going” and authorized the payments.Last March, Piquant began negotiations with Gloria Wise and signaled its intention to pay back the money in full. On August 5, Air America deposited a first installment of $50,000 into an attorney-managed escrow account.At the time, a spokeswoman for Air America said, the radio network received a letter from the Department of Investigation recommending that the network set up an attorney-managed escrow account for the payments, rather than pay Gloria Wise directly or wait until the department’s investigation concludes. A department official, who asked not to be named, said later that the letter asked that the radio network put the entire $875,000, not payments, into an escrow account.A spokeswoman for Gloria Wise, Martta Rose of Rubenstein Public Relations, said yesterday she could not comment on the repayment until today, when she could contact officials from Gloria Wise.The Sun reported yesterday on a confidential settlement agreement signed in November 2004 by Mr. Franken, Mr. Cohen, and other parties. The document acknowledged that the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club had claims totaling $875,000 against the Air America radio network. Mr. Franken had told the Sun that he learned of the Gloria Wise transfers to Air America only this July.Yesterday, Air America’s CEO, Danny Goldberg, defended Mr. Franken. He said Mr. Franken’s role in the agreement “was simply to waive his own claims in order to facilitate the transaction and allow the network to survive under new ownership.”Mr. Goldberg said the portion of the agreement that listed the Gloria Wise claim of $875,000 did not apply to Mr. Franken, who was not an investor.“Al Franken does not have and never had any responsibility for this loan,” Mr. Goldberg said in a written statement. “His role at Air America was then and remains today as on-air talent.”

Air America Wires $825,000 To Club in Bronx

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