The Honorable Senator from New York, Alphonse D'Amato

D'Amato made $37,000 in one day -- a 200% return on his investment -- on a 1993 stock trade.

This initial public offering was handled by Stratton Oakmont, a company whose principals were accused of manipulating stock prices in 1992 by the SEC, and whose founder, Jordan Belfort, is currently barred
from the securities business by the SEC. Stratton Oakmont executives contributed $13,000 in 1991
and 1992 to D'Amato's campaign ($8,000 of which his campaign returned) and Belfort gave $100,000
to the Republican National Committee in 1992 after the fraud case was filed against the company. As
the then-ranking Republican on (and now Chairman of) the Banking Committee, D'Amato oversees
the securities industry and the SEC. D'Amato claimed that he had a discretionary account at the firm
but it was later revealed that the firm did not have discretionary accounts and that a D'Amato Senate
staffer approved all trades. Recently, Stratton Oakmont legally challenged the release of an
SEC-appointed independent counsel's report that dealt in part with D'Amato's IPO -- the report has
yet to be released by the SEC.

Source: Roll Call, 5/16/94; 5/23/94; 6/16/94; Newsday, 6/17/94; Washington Post, 12/9/94

D'Amato Orchestrated Bid-rigging HUD homes for family and political pals in Island Park, NY.

In May 1995, Federal Judge Leo Glasser ruled that D'Amato's hometown village of Island Park, NY,
was guilty of bid-rigging and nepotism in awarding HUD-subsidized housing during the early 1980's.
According to witnesses in the case, D'Amato (who was Hempstead Town Supervisor and a county
supervisor at the time) orchestrated the awarding of housing to his cousin and long-time neighbor as
well to other politically connected residents. Judge Glasser noted that despite several attacks on
witness Harold Scully's credibility, no one had offered any supporting evidence to undercut the
testimony (Scully had served as an Island Park village clerk and had worked as a D'Amato ally since
the 1960's when D'Amato was Island Park village attorney).

Recently, federal prosecutors asked the judge to reinstate close D'Amato ally and former HUD regional director, Geraldine McGann in the case.

Source: New York Times, 5/19/95; Newsday, 2/26/95; 8/24/95

D'Amato's HUD Scandal in Puerto Rico.

D'Amato consistently directed HUD grants to his campaign backers, including contributors in Puerto Rico, which D'Amato does not even represent. These backers included Eduardo Lopez Ballori (now under indictment for faking the source of his campaign gifts to D'Amato in order to avoid campaign gift limits) and Cleofe Rubi (who, along with his associates, contributed $18,000 to D'Amato one day in February 1987).

Source: Newsday, 10/6/92; 9/17/89

D'Amato used senior officials he had personally placed inside HUD (Joe Monticciolo) to award grants to Long Island contractor JOBCO, whose executives have contributed at least $7,600 to his
campaigns and whose legal counsel is Armand D'Amato. Grants D'Amato helped JOBCO receive include:

--$6 million in HUD grants to build luxury apartments in Sackets Harbor.

Source: NY. Newsday, 10/6/92; 9/17/89

--more than $4.6 million from White Plains to redevelop public housing. JOBCO's bid for the project
was initially rejected as too high, but the HUD official who owed his job to D'Amato began
pressuring White Plains to accept JOBCO as the contractor. White Plains finally reversed its decision
and accepted Jobco's $600,000 bid. In five years following the contract award, the job went $4
million over cost and was more than three years late.

Source: Newsday, 7/29/89

--Island Park Pool. In 1988, D'Amato negotiated a deal with then HUD Secretary Samuel Pierce to
provide $1 million to Island Park for a swimming pool. The justification for this deal was that the
ocean pollution threatened the Island Park beach and would thus lead to a depression in property
values. However, property values in Island Park were (and continue to be) very high, and residents
had access to a public beach less than a mile away. After continued controversy, Island Park canceled
the pool contract.

Source: New York Times, 7/1/89

D'Amato Received Illegal Contributions from Mob Associate/Sweet 'N Low Lobbyist.

Al D'Amato received $58,000 in illegal contribution from reputed mob associate and chief lobbyist for Sweet 'N Low producer Cumberland Packing Corp., Joseph Asaro. In April 1995, Asaro pleaded guilty to 3 federal felony counts for making a total of $200,000 in illegal contributions and tampering with witnesses.

D'Amato has called Asaro "a friend", "mentor", and "benefactor." Asaro illegally reimbursed friends' contributions with fraudulent invoices by Cumberland. D'Amato was a key supporter of legislation which would prevent a ban on the carcinogenic saccharin (Sweet 'N Low's main ingredient). D'Amato sponsored legislation in 1987 proposing a 5-year moratorium, which in 1991 was extended through 1997.

Source: Newsday, 4/13/95; NY Daily News, 4/13/95; NY Times, 4/13/95; AP 4/13/95; ABC's "World News Tonight", 4/12/95

D'Amato Was Accused of Illegal Fund Raising Methods.

Time magazine recently reported that Senator Al D'Amato's staff solicited contributions from two lobbyists this year during conversations about pending legislation. One of the lobbyists said "It's raw; it's distasteful. Al's guys reach through the phone and say we're helping you, and you have to help us." According to Time, lobbyists have charged for years that D'Amato and his staff use crude and even threatening fund-raising tactics, drawing explicit links between contributions and pending legislation in a way that's prohibited by federal law.

Source: Time, 9/11/95

Knight-Ridder reported lobbyists' complaints about D'Amato's use of illegal methods for soliciting contributions.

Two examples given include:

When a lobbyist told a D'Amato aide that his client's business hadn't been concluded, the aide told that lobbyist, "Well we haven't seen a contribution from them." After the lobbyist's client sent D'Amato a $5,000 contribution, the business was favorably resolved.

After D'Amato met with a lobbyist in his Senate office, he took the lobbyist next door and introduced
him to a fund raiser and left. According to the lobbyist, "He wanted me to help out on some fund-raising events Al was involved with." Federal law prohibits members of Congress from promising a benefit made possible by an act of Congress as a reward for political support. They are also not allowed to solicit or receive contributions in a federal building.

Source: Albany Times Union, 5/28/95

D'Amato Conducted Business "In an Improper and Inappropriate Manner" in Unisys Scandal.

In 1986, Sperry (which later became Unisys) paid D'Amato's brother, Armand, $120,500 to gain
Senator D'Amato's support in obtaining defense contracts for the company. D'Amato's Senate staff
let Armand use the senator's name and stationery to lobby successfully for more than $100 million
worth of defense contracts. Unisys successfully won contracts to manufacture missile guidance systems that the Navy had already deemed obsolete and over-priced. Also, the Senator received illegal campaign contributions from Unisys, which federal prosecutors made him return in 1991. The Senate Ethics Committee found that D'Amato "conducted the business of his office in an improper and inappropriate manner." Armand D'Amato was convicted of fraud, although the conviction was later overturned.

Source: Washington Post, 8/3/91; New York Times, 11/6/93; Newsday, 10/6/92

D'Amato Helped Wedtech Get Government Contracts After Illegal Contributions.

In the mid-1980's, D'Amato accepted $30,000 in illegal campaign contributions from defense contractor Wedtech Corporation Vice President Mario Moreno while helping Wedtech win lucrative military contracts - including a $55 million contract for artificial harbors. D'Amato also supported Wedtech Corporation in a dispute it had with the Army and loaned Moreno three staffers to help Wedtech's cause. Moreno admitted the purpose of the illegal contributions was to get favors from D'Amato and his staff.

Source: New York Times, 5/11/88

Steamco Staff/Contribution Connections. Steamco was an engineering company hired by Wedtech for
a $55 million subcontract for a navy pontoon project. This was the same Wedtech project for which
the Senator had been lobbying the government. Steamco President James Johnson was a D'Amato
contributor and hired former D'Amato Chief of Staff (1981-83) John Zagame as a consultant. Zagame
also got a $5,000 retainer from Wedtech to lobby the government, but said he returned the retainer
when the procurement scandal broke. Steamco only collected $1.5 million of the contract from
Wedtech before going bankrupt.

Source: New York Daily News, 5/28/89

From 1981 - 1986, during the time D'Amato had direct oversight over the nation's brokerage houses and investment-banking firms, he raised at least $500,000 from partners, executives and PACs of Wall Street firms.

Source: Wall Street Journal, 9/25/86

In September 1985, D'Amato began sounding out Drexel and other companies on a draft bill to tighten regulation on corporate takeovers -- including a provision that would have limited S&L's purchases of junk bonds which Drexel strongly opposed. When D'Amato introduced the bill on December 6, 1985, the provision was missing. Five days later, Drexel CEO Joseph and 35 other New York Drexel executives donated $500 each to D'Amato. D'Amato called the contributions "coincidental" because they came at a major New York fundraiser that raised over $1 million.

Source: Wall Street Journal 9/25/86

In 1983, Al D'Amato was the only character witness at the trial of Philip Basile, who was eventually convicted of conspiring with the Luchese crime family to defraud the government by offering a no-show job to confessed Mafia underling Henry Hill. D'Amato called Basile a "honest, truthful, hardworking man, a man of integrity." D'Amato and members of his family have long ties to Basile -- D'Amato had a victory party at one of Basile's bars in 1980 and D'Amato's brother, Armand, was Basile's lawyer in 1980. D'Amato's 1986 campaign accepted contributions from Basile and later returned them.

Source: Newsday, 7/10/92; New York Times, 10/27/91; UPI, 2/16/84; UPI, 3/26/81

In 1991, Alphonso D'Arco -- the former head of the Luchese crime family testified to the FBI and
federal prosecutors that D'Amato had "contact" with a number of crime figures including: Colombo boss, Victor Orena, Luchese operatives Danny Cutaia, Frank Manzo, Philip Basile and Peter Vario, the son of the late Luchese captain, Paul Vario.

Source: Newsday, 7/10/92

A convicted figure in the FBI's Abscam Congressional bribery sting operation said in a taped conversation that D'Amato was "on the take." In the March 1979 taped conversation, Alfred Carpentier told FBI agents posing as Arabs how to develop Mitchell Field, an abandoned Air Force base the government sold to Nassau County in 1961. Carpentier asserted that he could get to then Hempstead Supervisor D'Amato. "The guy is on the take. If you want to give him something, we'll weigh that when the time comes. You make your analysis based on what he's giving us... [D'Amato] said you can develop the that whole goddamn thing. That whole thing comes to, like, a $240 million development. You can have any part of it or the best pieces, whatever you want." No action was taken against D'Amato.

Source: New York Times, 11/28/81

D'Amato pushed a $196 million courthouse for Central Islip, Long Island, through Congress.

It will be the second-costliest new federal court in the nation. D'Amato handpicked the site. The architect is a D'Amato fundraiser. Its construction will be overseen by a D'Amato appointee. Yet, another new courthouse is under construction just 40 miles to the west in Brooklyn. In early 1993 Vice President Gore's reinventing government initiative placed the project on hold, but D'Amato and Rep. Rick Lazio (R-NY) termed it "essential."

Source: New York Daily News, 10/17/94

As Hempstead Town Supervisor, D'Amato deposited large sums of local tax monies, perhaps as much as $8 million, in a local bank account that earned no interest. The same bank later gave D'Amato an
$80,000 campaign loan at 8 points below the prime lending rate.

Source: The Village Voice , 10/8-14/90

D'Amato helped fundraiser's company get government money. D'Amato used his position on the
Senate Appropriations Committee to get a company to run his fundraiser for almost $80 million in government funding. D'Amato fundraiser Harry Apkarian's Mechanical Technology, Inc (MTI) had been receiving government funds to commercially develop the experimental Stirling engine designed to improve energy efficiency and save fuel since the early 1970's. After OMB recommended dropping the program in 1982, MTI appealed to D'Amato, who helped the company continue to receive funding until 1989.

Source: Daily News 4/8/86

A late 1970's grand jury implicated Al D'Amato and indicted his mentor, Nassau County Republican Chairman Joseph Margiotta, in a $678,000 insurance commission extortion scheme. Margiotta implied to Nassau County and Hempstead Town insurance agent Richard A Williams that he would lose his business if he did not pay the commissions. D'Amato approved the insurance brokers appointments by Margiotta. After two trials, Margiotta was convicted by federal prosecutor Edward Korman in 1981.

Source: The Village Voice, 10/8-14/80; New York Times, 12/14/81

During the 1970's, Hempstead Town Supervisor Al D'Amato approved government funding for a $78 million experimental incinerator ($135 million was ultimately paid). In 1980, Carl Landegger, the owner of the company that built the plant, handed D'Amato a blank check in the presence of witnesses and told him to fill in whatever amount his campaign needed. The plant emitted foul odors and high levels of dioxin, provoking complaints from the townspeople and forcing a shutdown in 1980. A new plant using more conventional technology was opened in 1986, boosting the total cost to $360 million.

Source: Business Week, 7/17/78; LA Times, 2/31/91

Openness? Why hasn't D'Amato released Ethics Committee testimony -- nor had open hearings?

Although D'Amato has insisted on full disclosure in the Whitewater case, he has refused to make public his own 900-page testimony, sworn before the Senate Ethics Committee in 1991. Similarly, when the Senate Ethics Committee launched a 21-month investigation into allegations of influence-peddling by D'Amato, the hearings were closed.

In 1991, D'Amato five times evaded an interviewer's question on whether the hearings should be public by saying it was "up to the committee." When he was later asked to make his testimony public, D'Amato's lawyer said that he didn't have a copy of the transcript. When asked in 1994 if he would release the Ethics Committee records, D'Amato said, "They have released a 17-page report...There are standard procedures...." According to Ethics Committee rules, senators and witnesses may request permission from the committee to obtain their testimony and may also request permission to release it publicly. Following the investigation, the committee ruled D'Amato "had conducted the business of his office in an improper and inappropriate manner".

Source: Washington Post, 8/5/91; Roll Call, 4/25/94; ABC's "PrimeTime Live",5/2/91; Newsday, 10/11/92; NBC's "Meet The Press", 3/13/94


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