Public Official No. 3 Looks Like No. 2

Those naysayers in the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pa. are at it again. The noose around Fed Ed's neck is growing tighter as prosecutors painstakingly build a power racketeering (RICO) case against Allentown's Mayor, whom we've all come to know and love as Public Official No. 3. The latest of the King's men to fall is one of his own Assistant Solicitors, Dale R. Wiles. He was charged yesterday (criminal information here) in a bid-rigging scheme to replace a privatized tax collector with one more willing to contribute to Edwin Pawlowski's never-ending quests for public office.

The first blow fell against entrepreneur Ramzi Haddad on September 10. He was willing to bribe his way into more favorable treatment. But what was astonishing, even to me, was the revelation that Fed Ed went so far as to buy burner phones and conduct sweeps of his office. That's pretty clear evidence that he's a crook.

Fed Ed has nevertheless gone to work every day acting as though nothing is unusual, posting hypocritical Facebook inspirations each Sunday. He's tried to regain some of his liberal supporters by proudly proclaiming that Syrian refugees are welcome, though just a few months before, he refused to allow Allentown's Syrians them to fly their national flag.

Which brings us to Dale Wiles. He posts inspirational quotes on Facebook, too. Like "A good man or woman will be honest no matter how painful the truth is." And "Never ask someone if they're telling the truth. An honest person will be offended. A liar will just lie to you more."

Wiles, we all know, failed to follow his own advice and conspired with Fed Ed and Pubic Official No. 4 (finance director Gary Strathearn) to defraud the rightful winners of a tax collection contract in favor of a campaign contributor. What's worse, he his documents from the FBI that would reveal the scheme and lied to agents when they confronted him.

Obviously, he's going to jail.

I know Wiles. He used to search titles at the Northampton County courthouse until the bottom fell out of the real estate market. Back in 2010, when he was first appointed Assistant Solicitor, I wrote a story about it.

It's worth repeating.

"Despite Layoffs, Cronyism Alive and Well in Pawlowski's Allentown."

September 23, 2010 - His wife is a practicing attorney, but Chicago-area native Dale R. Wiles has avoided courtrooms during his time in the Lehigh Valley. He's preferred to make his money searching titles, mostly in Northampton County.

During this time, he and his wife have been soldiers for the local Democratic party. They've made campaign contributions to Democrats seeking local and state office. They also gave to Sam Bennett's disastrous Congressional race against Charlie Dent. Dale and his daughter even participated in one of Bennett's TV ads. "Children's Health Care? Over-rated," he snarks, dressed in a faux Dent T-shirt. Of course, he's a Democratic committeeman, too, and a district boss to boot.

Now that the real estate market is in the tank and his title searching income is down, Dale has played on his political connections for a job an Assistant City Solicitor in Allentown. Wiles is filling the vacancy created when long-time Assistant Solicitor Martin Danks decided to trade in his legal pad for a fireman's uniform. Heaven forbid that Pawlowski would consider leaving the position vacant and save the City some money.

Wiles has absolutely no experience as a lawyer. That may actually be a plus in that office, which seems to spend most of its time denying Right-to-Know-Law requests.  What Wiles lacks in experience is made up for by knowing the right people.

One of them is wife, Gladys.  She just happens to be City Solicitor Jerry Snyder's partner in private practice.

Last year, Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski laid off thirty-nine union workers. Rising pension costs could fuel additional layoffs, as well as a tax hike, next year.

But King Edwin's men are apparently safe.

You can see Wiles and his daughter, wearing their faux Dent T-shirts, in the Sam Bennett commercial below.



Wiles' Wife Secretary to Allentown Redevelopment Authority

Incidentally, Wiles' wife Gladys is Secretary of the Allentown Redevelopment Authority, which currently has two Requests For Proposals.

I sure hope her husband ain't rating them.

She needs to step down.

Ramzi Haddad First to Fall in Allentown Pay-to-Play Investigation

Ramzi Haddad, an entrepreneur whose name regularly appears on campaign finance reports, is the first to fall in Allentown's pay-to-play investigation. This is what defeeral prosecutors have to say. Public Official #3 is obviously Edwin Pawlowski, the Allentown Mayor who was ruinning for the U.S. Senate.

PHILADELPHIA - Ramzi Haddad, 45, of Bethlehem, PA, pleaded guilty today to an information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery offenses, announced United States Attorney Zane David Memeger. After accepting Haddad’s guilty plea, U.S. District Judge Juan R. Sanchez scheduling a sentencing hearing for December 18, 2015.

During the guilty plea hearing, Haddad admitted the following:

The defendant was an entrepreneur who had business interests in Allentown, including potential contracts with the City of Allentown and the actual and prospective ownership of properties which were regulated and overseen by governing authorities in Allentown, including Public Official #3, who represented the City through an elective office. Public Official #3 aspired to win election to a statewide elective office. To achieve this goal, Public Official #3 knowingly sought campaign contributions in exchange for official actions that he took, attempted to take, and caused and attempted to cause the City of Allentown to take.

After repeated dealings with Public Official #3, the defendant concluded that he was intentionally acting against the defendant’s economic interests while favoring the economic interests of Public Official #3’s major donors and political allies. Concerned that Public Official #3 would otherwise interfere with and block his projects in Allentown, the defendant further concluded that the only way to receive a “fair shake” from Public Official #3 and public officials subordinate to him was to give Public Official #3 items of value, including food, drinks, and campaign contributions. Consequently, the defendant agreed to make contributions to the various campaigns of Public Official #3 when Public Official #3 or his campaign staff solicited campaign contributions. By December 2014, the defendant had explicitly agreed to give campaign contributions to Public Official #3 in exchange for certain official actions that the defendant expected from the City of Allentown. Over the course of the next few months, the defendant made numerous donations in exchange for certain official actions that he expected from the City of Allentown.

On April 17, 2015, Public Official #3 formally announced his candidacy for another elective office, this time for a position in federal government, during a campaign finance reporting period which would end on June 30, 2015. Before making this announcement, Public Official #3 had told the defendant about his plan to run for the federal office, explained his strategy of maximizing contributions prior to the end of the June 30 reporting period, and asked the defendant to raise money for the federal campaign by bundling his own contribution with the contributions of others. The defendant ultimately agreed to raise $25,000 for Public Official #3’s federal campaign before the June 30 deadline.

On May 18, 2015, Public Official #3 traveled from Allentown to New York City in order to meet with the defendant and discuss the official “help” that Public Official #3 could provide in return for the contributions that the defendant would raise for Public Official #3’s federal campaign. In consideration for the defendant’s fundraising commitment, Public Official #3 agreed to intervene with municipal inspections of one of the defendant’s buildings in Allentown.

On June 29, 2015, the defendant delivered to Public Official #3 approximately $15,000 in checks, all made payable to the federal campaign. Public Official #3 reminded the defendant of his pledge to raise a total of $25,000, advised that he bundle additional checks and “back date” them to a date prior to June 30, 2015, and restated his own ability to take official action which could affect the defendant. The next day, the defendant delivered to Public Official #3’s campaign staff two checks, totaling $6,500, both made payable to Public Official #3’s federal campaign. These checks were intended to replace a previous check which the defendant had delivered to Public Official #3 the day before.

As part of his agreement with Public Official #3, the defendant, at Public Official #3’s request, also paid for the food and beverage bills when the two met to discuss the defendant’s business interests. During the course of exchanging campaign contributions for official action by Public Official #3, the defendant and Public Official #3 made numerous interstate phone calls and traveled between states, typically between New York and Pennsylvania. Public Official #3 took numerous steps to destroy or avoid creating any records that would show a linkage between his official actions and campaign contributions from donors such as the defendant. For example, on June 29, 2015, Public Official #3 instructed the defendant to immediately delete from his mobile telephone all text messages constituting evidence of the defendant discussing potential municipal contracts with Public Official #3’s campaign staff.

Haddad faces a maximum possible sentence of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, three years of supervised release and a $100 special assessment.

This case was investigated by the FBI’s Allentown Resident Agency, the Pennsylvania State Police, and IRS Criminal Investigations. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Joe Khan and Nancy Beam Winter.

You can read the criminal information here.

Fed Ed and Miked Fleck Funneled $1 Million to Honest Abe Atiyeh

Sewage diving wil be part of next year's Sportsfest

When Edwin Pawlowski first ran for Allentown Mayor, colorful entrepreneur Abe Atiyeh loved him. But things quickly changed. J.B. Reilly's urban growth regime killed Atiyeh's dreams of a hockey arena in Allentown, somewhere along Airport Road. The crony capitalists who really run Allentown wanted it downtown as an anchor for their newly created MIZ (Millionaire Improvement Zone). Then city officials even began throwing up roadblocks to Digiview, Abe's billboard empire. But that's old news. Honest Abe is in love again. And he has a million reasons.

Honest Abe sings Fed Ed's praises now, calling him "the best mayor in the history of the city. I've never expected or gotten anything in return for a donation. I've never gotten any city contracts." Of course he did. As I explained earlier this week, Honest Abe bought the billboard company with city contracts for billboards at 13 different locations. Fed Ed denied that the City was involved in any way. "There was no deal that was made here, per se, and in any way, shape or form," he insisted. But there was. The City actually helped him purchase the company by buying two properties it did not need from Abe, allowing him to realize a $999,000 capital gain.

The first property, a series of three parcels along Union and Basin Streets near the city sewage plant, was purchased by Atiyeh's Basin Street Development Company in December, 2012, for $350,000. In May, 2014, he sold it to the City of Allentown for $950,000. He also imposed a billboard easement, which would allow him to advertise at that site.

His capital gain here is at least $600,000, and is probably more because he encumbered the City's property with a billboard easement in his favor.

The second property, located around 1900 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, is the remnant of an old fertilizer company, not very far from where a WPA wall recently collapsed as a result of City neglect. Much of this land, around 60%, is actually located in Salisbury Township instead of Allentown.

Atiyeh's Cedar Holdings LLC purchased this property in February 2007, for $51,000. In May 2014, he sold it to the City for $450,000, for a $399,000 capital gain.

His total capital gain from both purchases in $999,000. The City paid him enough money to purchase the billboard company he wanted.

The person who made all of this possible, by Atiyeh's own admission, is Miked Fleck, the Fed Ed campaign consultant who also acted as a business consultant.

It's unclear to me whether Allentown City Council was ever asked to approve these purchases. I see no evidence of it in any of the City Council minutes during that time period. It might be there, but I'm unable to locate it.

Allentown blogger Michael Molovinsky, unaware that the City was buying these properties from Atiyeh, speculated at the time that the funding source was actually the water and sewer lease with Lehigh County Authority. Fed Ed has apparently been using it as a slush fund. Since Miked Fleck's sister-in-law works as a "compliance" officer there, I'm sure every t is crossed and i is dotted.

Since that time, Atiyeh has been very grateful. He's donated $12,500 to Pawlowski or his puppets. How much he has paid his "consultant" Fleck is a question best left to the Feds.

The ostensible reason for these purchases was so that the City could add to its parks. Cuz as you know, we all love to picnic next to a sewage plant or an abandoned fertilizer company. In fact, sewage diving is being added to next year's Sportsfest. Instead of an A-town Throwdown, it will be the A-town Throwup.

The real reason for this purchase was to funnel $1 million into Honest Abe's pockets.

Blogger's Note: I have linked to a story written by Michael Molovinsky at the time these purchases were made. Although he was unaware that Abe Atiyeh was the  seller, or that he was walking away with a cool million, he knew something was wrong with this deal. This story just completes the puzzle.