Eliot Spitzer

Teachers’ unions and sponsors of teachers’ union retirement plans have enjoyed a close relationship over the years – too close, in fact, for New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.  And the recent consent decree engineered by Spitzer will force that relationship into the open.  It’s a mixed blessing.  On October 9, Spitzer announced that his office and the Dutch-based investment company, ING Groep NV, had come to a $30 million settlement over allegations that ING’s payments to teachers’ unions to steer retirement funds its way overstepped the bounds of legality.  ING paid as much as $3 million annually in fees to the New York State United Teachers, with more than a half-million members.  The restitution plan covers as many as 66,000 teachers in New York State (outside New York City) and another 5,000 state workers in New Hampshire.  While neither admitting nor denying guilt, ING will pay at least $100 to every teacher and an average of $450 per employee.

NY Attny. Gen. Eliot Spitzer announced on Feb. 10 the arrest of 18 school custodians and a cleaning contractor on charges of bribes, rigged bids and kickbacks involving each schools cleaning contract. They were arraigned in the Bronx County Sup. Ct. the same day. The latest indictments come a little more than a year after 11 custodians were charged with similar crimes.

Acc. to the latest charges, 17 of the custodians arranged for Thomas Robinson to get the schools window cleaning contracts without considering at least two other bids, as required by the NYC Dept. of Educ. for services costing over $250. Robinson himself provided phony bids, some from firms that didnt exist. After being selected, Robinson would pay the custodians a kickback of 10-50% of each contract, which ranged from $1,000 to $4,000 cash. The scheme is alleged to have occurred from 1996-2001.