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Air America Scandal: Bubbling up to the MSM

Slowly but surely we are getting the facts on Evan Cohen and Air America... and it ain't pretty. The New York Sun looks into the story and they are starting to find the rest of the iceberg:

Funds of a Bronx Youth Group Allegedly Lent to Air America

The top executive at a Bronx youth organization said yesterday that the former director of Air America Radio received more than $800,000 in loans for himself and the radio network from the nonprofit organization while serving as its development director.

Some of the transfers, according to the president of the Bronx-based Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club organization's executive committee, Jeannette Graves, occurred when the development director, Evan Montvel Cohen, who for a time served simultaneously as the liberal radio network's director, appealed to the organization for two loans worth $35,000. Another member of the executive committee said Mr. Cohen told the executive director of the organization that he needed the money to pay for chemotherapy for himself and other medical expenses for his ill father.

Well, I guess we can dispense with the pleasantries of calling this an "investment."

Ms. Graves said that Mr. Cohen also received another $213,000 loan for Air America in a check that was approved without her authorization and stamped with an imprint of her signature, and that the club wired more than $400,000 to him without her knowledge. ...

Ms. Graves said Air America has agreed in writing to pay back the full amount of more than $800,000 in installments over the next two years. It is unclear whether the funds allegedly obtained from Gloria Wise were ultimately received or spent by Air America.

HUH? This severely strains credulity. We are to believe that Air America never got the $800,000+ but they are going to write a check for it out of the goodness of their heart? I know the paper must use words like "allegedly" but Stevie Wonder could see this a mile away.

And who wired almost a half a million dollars without the president of the executive committee knowing about it? (* cough wire-fraud cough*)

Initially, members of the executive committee viewed Mr. Cohen fondly because he had thrown a tremendously successful fund-raising affair for Gloria Wise in Manhattan last year. They recalled being impressed by the wealthy clientele and the large sums of money he raised, according to Ms. Graves.

Because of that confidence in Mr. Cohen, she said, the executive committee approved two loans to Air America, one for $80,000 and another for $87,000.

Ms. Capell said she had met Mr. Cohen several times.

"He was very suave, a very wonderful young man. He left a very favorable impression," she said in a telephone interview.

After the initial two loans, Ms. Graves said that just before the launch of Air America her organization lent the network another $213,000, authorized with a rubber stamp of her signature on a document she said she never saw. More recently, Ms. Graves said, Gloria Wise made a wire transfer of at least $400,000 to Air America without her knowledge.

In addition, according to Ms. Graves, the longtime executive director of Gloria Wise, Charles Rosen, later told the board he had lent an additional $35,000 of the organization's funds to Mr. Cohen for medical expenses. According to Ms. Capell, the board member, Mr. Cohen told Mr. Rosen he needed $25,000 to pay for chemotherapy. Mr. Cohen told associates that he recovered from brain cancer, according to Ms. Capell. Later, Mr. Cohen asked for $10,000 - which he was lent - be cause his father, a businessman in Asia, was "gravely ill," Ms. Capell said. ...

Gloria Wise received personal checks in various amounts from Mr. Cohen to pay back some of the loans, but Ms. Graves said the checks did not clear. The executive committee dismissed him when members learned of some of his actions, according to another member of the executive committee, John Rose.

This really is damning. I'm not a lawyer or a prosecutor and I think I see about 10 potential violations here. This "apparently phoney" scandal is serious enough that Air America is willing to part with almost a million dollars to make it go away.

The president of the executive committee's willingness to talk the media is just more bad news for Cohen and Air America. It is sounding more and more like this was not an "investment" but a "scam." And a big one.

I think we should have a call to action... I think callers to Air America should demand that their multi-millionaire talk stars refuse to cash their paychecks until the children are given their money back... Millionaire liberals would NEVER take money from children would they?

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Comments (59)

Millionaire liberals wou... (Below threshold)
joe:

Millionaire liberals would NEVER take money from children would they?

Sure they would, for the "greater good".......

I saw a documentary about t... (Below threshold)

I saw a documentary about the Air America start-up on HBO one night at a hotel, and I think that guy cohen was on it. HE was always trying to call people and get money. But the truth was, most of the people working on the network never got some of their paychecks - not the big rich on-air folks, but the lower down the totem pole folks.

very shifty stuff.

Post treatment of a brain d... (Below threshold)

Post treatment of a brain disorder? Can you hear the "insanity defense" being sharpened up in the backroom?

Hey! Where's <a href="http:... (Below threshold)
AnonymousDrivel:

Hey! Where's distracting Dan? Is (s)he on a lunch break?

(Copyrighted material delet... (Below threshold)
Dan:

(Copyrighted material deleted)

(Copyrighted material delet... (Below threshold)
Dan:

(Copyrighted material deleted)

(Copyrighted material delet... (Below threshold)
Dan:

(Copyrighted material deleted)

AnonymousDrivel:Th... (Below threshold)
fatman:

AnonymousDrivel:

Thanks a bunch. Don't you know that some demons are summoned by the sound of their names?!

RE: Dan's tangentially rele... (Below threshold)
AnonymousDrivel:

RE: Dan's tangentially relevant post (August 1, 2005 03:12 PM)

Welcome back from your brief repose, Dan. At least this one has "Air America" material in it.

It just seems a shame that a sister station (financed by the pooled "profits" of the corporation) found it necessary to abscond with public monies destined for some of the most needy (via probable fraud) to advance the stations' success. I guess the ends justify the means. It's imperative that the left of the dial be allowed to preach about corporate greed and corruption to the masses even if it requires corporate greed and corruption to do it. I'm sure they'll be glad to disclose their rationale in due course both over the air and on their promotional literature.

Yes, Johnny. Would you and your friends like to give me your milk money so Mr. Franken can buy a new Rolex? Here's our 4-color pamphlet showing how much we care about you. And be sure to tune in to WLIB as they fight for your cause. What's that? You can't afford a Walkman? Well, trust me. Your voice will be theirs. "Down with corporate welfare! Up with Mumia! We shall overcome! Bush is the Devil! Rove is the Devil's dad!" Just slides off the tongue, eh? Now, hand over the money.

Hehe, stealing from childre... (Below threshold)
Faith+1:

Hehe, stealing from children in order to raise ratings from shit to shit with added stink....classic. Personally, I'm waiting to see how they will blame this on Rove...

I'm not suprised they blame the Right's ability to succeed with ulterior motives. It is apparent they cannot conceive of success in anything without lying, cheating and thieving....after all, it's the only way they know how to succeed...

Millionaire liberals wou... (Below threshold)
Ordi:

Millionaire liberals would NEVER take money from children would they?

YES

Their mantra is "By any means Nessecary!"

Someone should look in to "GORETV" too!

Sure Dan- In the most liber... (Below threshold)
Paul:

Sure Dan- In the most liberal markets in American Limbaugh ONLY has 3x to 5x the listeners.

Many I bet you can just taste sweet victory in '08 huh?

So in other words, you're a loser just not as big a loser as last year. Now there's a consolation prize.

Faith+1 said:-------... (Below threshold)
Paul:

Faith+1 said:
-----------
Hehe, stealing from children in order to raise ratings from shit to shit with added stink....classic. Personally, I'm waiting to see how they will blame this on Rove...
------------------

Dude, that was soooo yesterday.

RE: fatman's post (August 1... (Below threshold)
AnonymousDrivel:

RE: fatman's post (August 1, 2005 03:38 PM)

Sorry fatman. I'll try to be more discerning in my craft. I think I added too much kitten (credit goes to Sue Dohnim) to the broth. I wonder if I can scare up John at Wuzzadem or Mr. Burge from Iowahawk on demand? Their's is commentary worth reading (no knock against Wizbang).

Boil, boil, steam and bubble,
Make this toil worth the trouble.
Save us from the muck and muddle,
Spare us from such Dan-like puddle.

Anything? Not yet? Well, back to the VRWC cave. Gotta recheck the recipe.

More recently, Ms. Grave... (Below threshold)
lin:

More recently, Ms. Graves said, Gloria Wise made a wire transfer of at least $400,000 to Air America without her knowledge.

There is the question of whether AA used to money or Cohen stuck it in his pocket.

However, I would think that when Cohen left there would have been an extensive audit and scrutiny of bank records before the sale of AAR to new owners. He left or was fired because it was discovered that AA was in financial troubles. He said that they had raised 30 million dollars but had actually raised only a fraction of that.

Since the money was wire transferred to AA it strains credibility to think that AAR didn't know anything about this.

I think that they would at least be responsibe to alert authorities that Cohen had unethically borrowed money from a non-profit organization, and that maybe they should look into possible fraud. But they did nothing.

This is almost a non-story.... (Below threshold)
HARVARDLAW22:

This is almost a non-story. The man behind the deception in this situation, Evan Cohen, has nothing to do with Air America at this point and in fact he is M.I.A. because Air America would like to sue him for his deceptive business practices. He is basically a well-dressed con artist and was removed from any organization even remotely involving Air America. On a second note the Boys and Girls club has a lot of cash on hand and the half million dolllar sum is not having an immediate day-to-day impact. Even though Air America in its current form has nothing to do with Evan Cohen and his crooked business practices they have still agreed to completely repay the B & G club because they feel bad that the club was decieved just as they were by this snake, Evan Cohen.

Faith Personally, I'm... (Below threshold)
lin:

Faith Personally, I'm waiting to see how they will blame this on Rove...

Actually at DU and DKos they are saying it's just a non story and was probably engineered by Rove as a distraction from Rove (Plame leak), Limbaugh's legal problems (medical records and drugs) or something else not named yet.

This is what they were saying over the weekend. I don't know what they are saying today.

RE: AnonymousDrivel's post ... (Below threshold)
AnonymousDrivel:

RE: AnonymousDrivel's post (August 1, 2005 03:42 PM)

preach ... to the masses

Oops. My literary license deserves a revocation, or a suspension, surely. What was I thinking?!

If I were a con-man, I woul... (Below threshold)
jmaster:

If I were a con-man, I would be targeting moonbats too.

They will obviously believe even the most bald-faced lies.

And it would be soooo much fun…..

(Copyrighted material delet... (Below threshold)
Dan:

(Copyrighted material deleted)

Re: AnonymousDrivel's post ... (Below threshold)
fatman:

Re: AnonymousDrivel's post (August 1, 2005, 4:39 PM)

ROFLMAO!!!

So basically, AAR and Piqua... (Below threshold)
Jim Jones:

So basically, AAR and Piquant have nothing to do with this 'scandal'. It was all the Gloria Wise club and Evan Cohen.

It's almost too funny. You guys were saying that AAR steals from poor kids when in reality they're doing the exact opposite - giving them money even though they aren't required to. They could just forget about it, but no, they're gonna go one better and pay them back the money.

Also, AAR has the 8th highest rated station in Madison, Wisconsin after only being on there about 8 months.

While Dan worries about who... (Below threshold)
a4g:

While Dan worries about who is winning the popularity contest to be Homecoming King, the Repubs are:
Confirming conservative/constructionist appellate jurists, passing gun mfg liability reform, tort reform, bankruptcy reform, CAFTA, energy policy, etc., etc.

Tell you what, Clinton can have his 99% popularity and a feckless administration. I'll take deeds over words any day. And since liberals love good intentions, they can have them.

At this rate, I hope Bush leaves office the most unapproved of President in history.

Kinda like Lincoln...

I'd file this under the sam... (Below threshold)
Grr:

I'd file this under the same heading as "Dan Rather Tries to Fix the Election." I'd like to see the dates on these wire transfers, but if I guess correctly, all this was done in the service of attempting to defeat W. Anything, *anything* to keep that maniac out of the White House, for a second term, right? Air America was created for this purpose.

Hello out there,I'm ... (Below threshold)
Michael Horowitz:

Hello out there,
I'm a liberal Democrat, and I wrote the original article on the link between the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club and Air America for the Bronx news and City News in the Bronx. Don't paint all liberals with the same brush. Some of us are genuinely interested in the truth even if we detest most of what President Bush stands for. I invite your comments. There is no excuse for what happened between the Gloria Wise Club and Air America, but they did pales in comparison with President Bush's fairytales about weapons of mass destruction prior to the war in Iraq.
Mike Horowitz

EMPIRE QUAGMIRE SIS BOOM BA... (Below threshold)
Sue Dohnim:

EMPIRE QUAGMIRE SIS BOOM BAH!
BUSH LIED PEOPLE DIED RAH RAH RAH!
JooooOOOOOOOOS ROVE! Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!

a4g:People like yo... (Below threshold)
Jim Jones:

a4g:

People like you are why I think conservatives are morons. Bush and Congress are two different entities. Furthermore, approval ratings and accomplishments are two different ways of measuring success. How do Congresses accomplishments excuse Bush's paltry ratings? How does one make the other any better? How you even thought to compare the two is beyond me.

Or do you just not care what the U.S. thinks? Why do you hate America?

I'm gonna jump in here and ... (Below threshold)
Lew Clark:

I'm gonna jump in here and be really un-pc. All my adult life I've worked with youth groups. Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Boy's and Girl's Clubs, youth sport groups. Every one of these organizations never had money to spare. We kept a little emergency money, but very little. Every penny we got went to fund the operations of the organization.
So my question is, why/how did the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club have .8M dollars just laying around and apparently so much more ready cash they didn't even notice it was missing. Has anyone checked into this organization? All the comments I see bemoan the suffering of those kids and old people through the loss of this money. I want to know how much service they were getting to start with.

RE: Jim Jones's post (Augus... (Below threshold)
AnonymousDrivel:

RE: Jim Jones's post (August 1, 2005 06:21 PM)

...They could just forget about it, but no, they're gonna go one better and pay them back the money...

"Go one better" by delayed refunding of the money they acquired illegally and tried to avoid by defaulting/restructuring? And not because of virtue but because of exposure and catastrophic publicity? I wonder if they'll raid another charity's "investment" to repay the GWB&GC? Oh, they're just heavenly.

That's some nice spin. How many strings of yarn can you get through in a day?

Jim Jones--Two dif... (Below threshold)
a4g:

Jim Jones--

Two different entities? Sorry, too much of a moron to know what a high-falutin' word like 'entities' means.

You keep yer thinkin' that we podunk conservatives are morons, Jim. It's been workin' real well so far.

BTW - If you want to approval ratings really in the sh*tter, check out those of congress. But I guess approval ratings and accomplishments are two different ways of measuring success.

Tell ya what: to return to my original point, only a "moron" would care diddly squat about "approval ratings," when "accomplishments" are the alternative. And sorry, the only poll numbers I listen to are the ones on election day. I seem to remember a slightly different approval rating then.

Sorry if my previous comment was a little too nuanced, and required this clarification. I'll try not to write in crayon next time.

Lew, you may be onto someth... (Below threshold)
BR:

Lew, you may be onto something! What if donations to the charity (or even the charity itself) were set up as a scam for tax-deductible purposes, ultimately to then funnel the $$ into Air America.

Hello out there,I'... (Below threshold)
Dubya:

Hello out there,

I'm a compassionate conservative republican and I am President of the United States. Please don't paint all conservatives with the same brush. Some of us are genuinely interested in the truth, even if we detest most of what democrats stand for. I invite you to take a hike. There is no excuse for what happened between the Gloria Wise Club and Air America, but they did pales in comparison with President Clinton's fairytales about weapons of mass destruction prior to the war in Iraq.

Hee, quick, give Judith Mil... (Below threshold)
BR:

Hee, quick, give Judith Miller a cellphone - she needs to warn the charity before it gets raided, like she did in Dec. 01:

Wapo 2/25/05 article:

"U.S. District Judge Robert W. Sweet ruled that a federal prosecutor in Chicago cannot compel the newspaper to turn over records of two Times reporters' phone calls in 2001 as part of an investigation into possible government leaks. The effort by U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald came in the cases of two Muslim charities accused of possible ties to terrorists."

"The case began in late 2001, when federal agents were investigating two Islamic foundations for alleged ties to terrorists. On Dec. 3, 2001, Times reporter Judith Miller telephoned officials with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Texas-based charity accused of being a front for Palestinian terrorists, and asked for a comment about what she said was the government's probable crackdown on the group."

"U.S. officials said this conversation and Miller's article on the subject in the Times on Dec. 4 [2001] increased the likelihood that the foundation destroyed or hid records before a hastily organized raid by agents that day."

they acquired illegally<... (Below threshold)
Jim Jones:

they acquired illegally
Evan Cohen acquired them illegally, not AAR.

delayed refunding of the money...tried to avoid by defaulting/restructuring
Sorry I don't know the inner-workings of AAR. Apparently you do.

but because of exposure
They agreed to pay off the money before there was any exposure ("months ago")

only a "moron" would care diddly squat about "approval ratings"
So you really don't care what America thinks? Once again, why do you hate America?

only a "moron" would care diddly squat about "approval ratings," when "accomplishments" are the alternative
Assuming that was true, you still erred. You compared Bush's ratings to Congresses accomplishments. You should have been talking about Bush's accomplishments if his ratings aren't important.

RE: BR's post (August 1, 20... (Below threshold)
AnonymousDrivel:

RE: BR's post (August 1, 2005 08:41 PM)

What if donations to the charity (or even the charity itself) were set up as a scam for tax-deductible purposes, ultimately to then funnel the $$ into Air America.

There would certainly be reason to investigate new charity organizations for such a racket, but in this particular case, Gloria Wise had been around for quite some time. It's quite possible that Rosen (among others) ch