Tag: OTB

May 30

2023

Lawsuit seeks millions from OTB officials

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Earlier this month a federal court issued summonses to a host of current and former board members at Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., as part of a lawsuit seeking to hold the directors liable for the agency’s alleged misuse of millions of public dollars. The lawsuit aims to compel those 21 board members to pay back to OTB — and thus to the 15 counties and two cities that own the agency — money “improperly used” to purchase health insurance for board members, expensive tickets to sporting events and concerts, and contracts for politically connected firms. Specifically, the lawsuit claims[...]

Posted 2 years ago

May 15

2023

Monday Morning Read

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Subscribe to WeeklyPost and you’ll Jim Heaney’s recommended reading for the week. As in below. Michael Joseph and his Clover Group have been in the news of late — that’s an understatement — as they were in 2021 when they bought a mansion that shares a waterfront with Mar-a-Lago, home to you-know-who. Here are snippets published in September 2021 by The Real Deal, a real estate website, regarding Joseph’s purchase of a West Palm Beach mansion for $15.9 million. The two-story home in the Prospect Park neighborhood has six bedrooms and nine and a half bathrooms, according to Realtor.com. Completed[...]

Posted 2 years ago

May 3

2023

Big shakeup at the besieged OTB

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The embattled Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. is finally getting reformed. In a big way. The state public benefit corporation — mired in allegations of malfeasance and subject to multiple critical audits and investigations — saw its entire 17-member board of commissioners terminated Tuesday night, thanks to a budget provision sponsored by Sen. Tim Kennedy of Buffalo and Assembly Member Monica Wallace of Lancaster, both Democrats.  New board members will be appointed and weighted voting instituted to reflect the population of the 15 counties and two cities that in-effect own OTB. That will shift control from mostly rural counties controlled[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Mar 6

2023

Bonuses for executives at embattled OTB

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Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. awarded $40,000 in bonuses to its top executives in January, even as federal and state investigators continued a probe into allegations of malfeasance at the public benefit corporation. At OTB’s January 19 board meeting, the 13 directors present voted unanimously to award a bonus of $12,000 to Henry Wojtaszek, president and chief executive officer. Including the bonus awarded by the board, Wojtaszek is making more than $200,000 in salary, plus benefits. The board also awarded bonuses of $6,000 each to Scott Kiedrowski and William White, both vice presidents, and $6,000 to Jacquelyne Leach, chief financial[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Aug 21

2022

If Henry Wojtaszek was Pinocchio

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Here’s the latest recommended reading – and this week, viewing – from Jim Heaney. Subscribe to his Sunday email newsletter and you’ll get the news a day earlier, along with a recap of Investigative Post’s reporting from the previous week. Updated: 12:22 p.m. Henry Wojtaszek, the embattled CEO of the embattled Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., took the unusual step of answering questions from a reporter last week. He appeared Wednesday on WGRZ’s 5:30 p.m. newscast. Michael Wooten asked the right questions and Wojtaszek, well, let’s just say if he was Pinocchio, his nose would have been very long by the[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jul 20

2022

Hardwick demands answers from OTB

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For the first time, one of the governments that owns the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. is demanding answers about the agency’s management practices and business dealings. Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick sent two letters this week to Henry Wojtaszek, OTB’s president and CEO. One letter posed a series of questions about the agency’s practice of providing top-shelf health insurance to board members, despite repeated warnings that doing so is impermissible. It’s a subject Investigative Post has covered extensively, in more than two dozen stories published over four years.  Hardwick’s other letter raised questions about OTB’s sale of land to[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jun 9

2022

OTB reform bills stall in state Legislature

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After state auditors criticized the handling of public funds and resources at Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., a pair of Democratic state lawmakers sponsored legislation in hopes of changing the way the public benefit corporation operates.  The reform measures — sponsored by state Assemblywoman Monica Wallace, D-Lancaster, and state Sen. Tim Kennedy, D-Buffalo — were not approved by the state Legislature before the end of this year’s session that concluded Saturday. Kennedy’s bills passed the Senate, but not the Assembly. Wallace’s bill never got out of committee in the Assembly. Wallace said she plans to submit a revised version of[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jun 6

2022

OTB tries to stifle a critic

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Jim Shultz has gotten under the skin of Henry Wojtaszek, president and CEO of the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. Wojtaszek ostensibly works for a 17-member board of directors appointed by 15 counties and the cities of Buffalo and Rochester, but in reality, he has a free rein over OTB operations. And he’s apparently sicced one of his many lawyers on Shultz. Hodgson Russ is one of four law firms OTB presently has on retainer. As we reported last week, OTB over the past year has spent $333,684 for assorted legal services, much of it dealing with investigators probing claims[...]

Posted 3 years ago
Investigative Post