Former Senator D’Amato is scheduled to testify next week, in NY State Supreme Court, June 15 -16, 2010 as to his alleged role as the lobbyist who influenced New York State officials to include a MOB related construction firm onto a list of qualified contractors after they had already been disqualified by the quality control people within the New York State Dormitory Authority (DASNY).

The Vanderbilt Group filed a $55 million lawsuit against DASNY for wrongful termination, Breach of Good Faith and Fair Dealing and several other charges. The lawsuit has been active for almost a decade and the court record indicate that the termination was only issued against The Vanderbilt Group as the only option left, for the DASNY officials involved, to cover-up their misconduct and possible criminal violations.

After Joseph and Fred Scalamandre’s construction company, Sea Crest Construction was disqualified from bidding a DASNY project, Thomas Murphy, then Executive Director of DASNY, testified that he was told to add the Scalamadres onto the list of qualified contractors anyway. Joseph and Fred Scalamandre both pleaded guilty to paying off the MOB and stealing tens of millions of dollars from several government agencies.

Sea Crest had been disqualified by Geoffrey Moore, a project manager for DASNY, after they submitted their qualification statement. Moore had explained in a letter to Sea Crest that the decision was final and there was no method to appeal that decision. Murphy’s testified that Richard Nasti, Alphonse D’Amato’s assistant for years, called him and berated him for disqualifying Sea Crest and told him to “make sure they get a Request for Proposal (RFP)” for the dormitories buildings proposed at SUNY Old Westbury. Murphy issued the order to Douglas VanVleck, then director of Construction for DASNY, who in turn issued the order to James Gray and then to Geoffrey Moore, all DASNY officials. This order was memorialized in an email and was submitted into evidence.

No definitive reason has been given as to why a phone call was even made on the Scalamandre’s behalf, especially since it was public knowledge at the time that they were under federal investigation and had ties to the MOB. This information had been published in many news articles and they had already been banned from bidding work for the School Construction Authority. Based on testimony from various witnesses, it appears that the phones calls could have been made based on a request from Senator D’Amato, who was just distinguished last week as the largest political contributor and one of the most influential lobbyists in New York State. (This information was just published by NYPIRG Director Blair Horner).

It has already been proven that the information that DASNY released to the press about The Vanderbilt Group and the Stubbolos was not only false, but released in violation of New York State’s procedures. It seems to appear that the press releases were a tactic used by DASNY to deflect attention away from inquiries that were being made about the role DASNY officials played in giving special treatment to the Scalamandre brothers.

Also scheduled to testify are Richard Nasti, Joseph and Fred Scalamandre, Norbert Nardon (a Scalamandre associate), Thomas Murphy, Douglas VanVleck, Geoffrey Moore, James Gray, William Roe, Kathy Graber, Jeffrey Pohl, Steven Boiko, all DASNY Officials and Edward Dominelli (DASNY IG),. Based on the court records so far, DASNY could be subject to Treble Damages, totaling $165 million in principal damages and interest compounded which means that The Vanderbilt Group could receive more than $200 million from DASNY.

Jury selection begins on Monday June 14, 2010 before The Honorable Ira Gammerman [JHO] [Commercial Division; Administrative Coordinating Judge.

For more information call Robert Del Col 631-271-4684