The
unnamed New York City nonprofit that appears to provide few services yet rakes
in millions in taxpayer money, as described by a state anti-corruption panel,
bears a strong resemblance to a Brooklyn agency.
The state’s Moreland Commission, in a report issued last
week, described its surveillance of a questionable storefront in New York City
that received almost $3 million in pork-barrel funds to provide various medical
services “with little scrutiny and no medical oversight.” The money came from a
“geographically and politically diverse group of some of the state’s most
powerful lawmakers.”
The report notes the “investigation remains in its early
stages, and it is possible that the organization provides laudable services to
the public,” and emphasizes that it has “found no impropriety to date and
reached no conclusion at this time.”
The commission went as far as mounting a camera on a pole
outside the nonprofit and recorded little foot traffic to the charity’s offices
during a 25-day period.
The lone employee inside told an investigator that most of
the group’s activities were in other states and two other countries and that it
sublet office space to another nonprofit.
Relief Resources Inc. occupies a storefront at 5904 13th
Ave. in Borough Park, a location it shares with the group Refuah Resources.
There is a telephone pole directly outside that would provide an ideal location
for a camera. A Post investigation based on public records suggests Relief
Resources might be the unnamed nonprofit described in the Moreland Commission
report, but officials have not confirmed this.
Relief Resources, according to its Web site, provides
referral services aimed at helping those in the Jewish community cope with
mental-health issues. It has offices in two other countries — Canada and Israel
— as well as in New Jersey and upstate Monroe.
The agency has used the services of the Albany lobbying firm
Malkin & Ross to seek state funding, state records show. The Moreland
Commission’s unnamed nonprofit uses “a top-shelf outside lobbying firm.”
Relief Resources has taken in $2,901,000 in state funding
since 2005, state records show.
Lawmakers have sponsored seven member-item
grants totaling $1,275,000 since 2006, according to the state attorney
general’s Open Government Web site.
Relief Resources’ latest tax filing shows it took in $1.8
million in the year ending June 30, 2012, and spent $1.7 million, including
$963,695 on salaries. It gave out $317,415 in grants for mental-health
treatment to five people and another $116,992 to a dozen patients, tax records
show.
Moreland Commission investigators called the unnamed
non-profit’s hot line as a test and reported the calls “went to voicemail.”
“When the calls were eventually returned, conversations were
brief, involved only the bare minimum of personal and medical history, and only
generic guidance was offered,” the commission reported.
When The Post reached the agency’s emergency extension
Friday, an answering service said it would take a message.
The commission said it subpoenaed records that showed the
majority of calls were very brief — “raising questions about how substantive
the calls can actually be, and about the legitimacy of the justification for
these large, legislatively directed discretionary grants.”
Benjamin Babad, the program director of Relief Resources,
said he knew nothing about the Moreland Commission and could not comment
because he hadn’t seen its report. He said his agency provided mental-health
referrals to “thousands” of clients mostly in New York.
Shiya Ostreicher, a board member of Relief Resources, is a
lobbyist for Agudath Israel of America, a powerful Orthodox Jewish
organization.
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