BREAKING NEWS
GEORGE LUMLEYS REQUESTS FOR PAST Â BROWNFIELDS CORP. AUDITS DENIED
We just received to e-mail exchange from George Lumley concerning his requests for copies of past Evansville Brownfield Corp audits.  Mr. Lumley’s correspondence between him and Brownfield Corp. attorney Nick Cirignano speaks for itself.
We post the attached e-mail exchange between Mr. Lumley and Attorney Nick Cirignano  for your review and comments.
Starting next week the City County Observer shall be contacting the Division of the Office of the Special Inspector General For The Troubled Asset Relief Program are and ask that they begin a special investigations on Evansville Brownfield Corp soon as possible.
Enough is enough. Â Evansville Brownfield financial operations solely depends on taxpayers money (Federal-State and local). Â The taxpayers of this community deserves to know how their hard earned tax dollars are being spent.
We are extremely disappointed in the main stream media for not getting involved in this issue of “transparency and “public access”.
Below is the correspondence between Lumley and Evansville Brownfield Corp Attorney
George Lumley Add to contacts 8:03 AM Keep this message at the top of your inbox
To: ‘Nick Cirignano’ Cc: ‘Coures, Kelley’, ‘Rusk, Carolyn’
george.f.lumley@gmail.com
Mr. Cirignano
I will try to summarize here the information that I would like to provide directly to your auditors. Although your organization claims to be public (when they speak to the public) it operates like a private club and claims to be a private club when addressing individuals like me. From looking at the information that I have found to exist in the public domain it appears that your organization has spent Federal Funds Inappropriately. I do not know how long you have been involved with EBC. You current Board Members may not be aware of past activities or obligations.
When I search the public domain I find only one audit filed and made public in the history of the EBC. This audit was for the year 2009 and I find no more even though it appears there would be an audit requirement.
When I look at the transactions that I find in the public domain I question the handling of the federal funds entrusted to the EBC. It appears that purchases, dispositions and program income may not follow federal guidelines.
For instance: It appears a financial institution had 3 houses they acquired through foreclosure. One house had a negative value. The financial institution packaged the Negatively valued property with two others and sold the package for $13,500. A few months later the Buyer sells the negative value house to the EBC for about $40,000. Then the negative valued property is demolished and cleaned up at the publics expense. Something is wrong with this picture. If your private EBC club was doing this with their money I would not be concerned. It appears they used federal dollars for this purpose. This questionable purchase is not an isolated instance.
Questions also exist on disposition of property purchased with federal funds. For example a house purchased for $20,000 was transferred for $-0- to someone to repair. How does the fair market value of a property change from $20,000 to $-0- in a matter of month. It would appear that EBC paid $20,000 over fair market value or sold the property for $20,000 under fair market value. Another house purchased for $80,000 sold for $5,000. Not only homes were purchased. A business was purchased for $190,000 and sold for $15,000.
I suspect the EBC had obligations for dispensing program income that may not have been followed. For example: The EBC/DMD purchased a property for $350,000. They made an estimated $60,000 in improvements and then sold the property for $15,000. Along with the sale there was also a gift of $100,000 to be applied toward development cost. This represents a total cash outlay of $495,000. From the information I find in the public domain EBC get all its funding from governmental grants or program income for those grants.
I suspect I have information pertinent to the audit of the EBC.
Sincerely,
George Lumley
From: Nick Cirignano [mailto:ncirignano@zsws.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2016 11:22 AM
To: George Lumley <george.f.lumley@gmail.com>
Cc: Coures, Kelley <kcoures@evansville.in.gov>; Rusk, Carolyn <crusk@evansville.in.gov>
Subject: RE: Brownfields audit
Mr. Lumley,
You have properly summarized our official position. You may feel free to forward to me any information you feel is relevant for our auditors.
Regards,
NICK J. CIRIGNANO
cid:image001.jpg@01CF2C84.85ABAE80
20 NW FIRST STREET 9TH FLOOR | PO BOX 916
EVANSVILLE INDIANA 47706 0916
PHONE (812) 424-7575 | FAX (812) 421-5089 | ZSWS.COM
___________________________________________________
From: George Lumley [mailto:george.f.lumley@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2016 10:49 AM
To: ‘Nick Cirignano’
Cc: ‘Coures, Kelley’; ‘Rusk, Carolyn’
Subject: RE: Brownfields audit
Mr. Cirignano,
Do you need more time to decide if you have an obligation to provide the information I requested or is the official response from your organization that you are private and have no obligation to the public to disclose your personal business?
Please take note that I feel that I have information that in my opinion would impact the financial reporting obligation of the EBC. Please notify your auditors.
Thanks You
George Lumley
From: Nick Cirignano [mailto:ncirignano@zsws.com]
Sent: Monday, February 08, 2016 9:27 AM
To: George Lumley
Cc: Coures, Kelley; Rusk, Carolyn
Subject: RE: Brownfields audit
Mr. Lumley,
I’m not sure that I understand your request below. If I understand correctly, it would be quite unusual for a third party to independently provide information to a certified public accountant contracted to perform audit services for a private non-profit entity. Please explain why this would be appropriate.
Regards,
NICK J. CIRIGNANO
cid:image001.jpg@01CF2C84.85ABAE80
20 NW FIRST STREET 9TH FLOOR | PO BOX 916
EVANSVILLE INDIANA 47706 0916
PHONE (812) 424-7575 | FAX (812) 421-5089 | ZSWS.COM
___________________________________________________
From: George Lumley [mailto:george.f.lumley@gmail.com]Â
Sent: Monday, February 08, 2016 9:10 AM
To: Coures, Kelley; ‘Rusk, Carolyn’
Cc: Brad Ellsworth; Constance Robinson; luke.yaeger@evansvillecommercebank.com; sschuler@vpsarch.com; Joshua Armstrong; kevinaxsom@fcte.com; ‘Nick Cirignano’
Subject: Brownfields audit
Dear Mr. Coures and Ms. Rusk
I attended an open meeting of the Evansville Brownfields Corp. Inc.(EBC), a corporation operating under IRS Code Section 501c, and it appears that you two would be the ones to address this inquiry. If you are not the ones to represent EBC on this matter please direct me to the responsible individual.
During this meeting it was mentioned that an audit of the organization was being conducted. I have information regarding EBC funding sources and disposition of those funds that I would like to provide directly to the “auditorsâ€.
Please provide me the contact information of the agencies or firms performing any pending audit of the EBC.
Sincerely,
George Lumley
Evansville In 47711
George you are surely puckering up some a-holes in the civic center (past and present) be careful of the toes you step on.
Some of our good ol boys down here could be organized crime.
What do you mean “could” be? When does a collaboration of efforts become a conspiracy and at what point would it then become organized crime? Are you silly enough to believe organized crime only exist in NY city or Chicago?
I would make sure you’re using turn signals and obeying the speed limit if I were you.
If you’re implying that EPD patrol officers have nothing better to do than hover around Mr. Lumley in an attempt to harrass him with petty violations, you are staggeringly out of touch with the realities of the patrol division. Street level manpower under this administration is very low, meaning they are barely able to keep up with 911 dispatch calls, much less conduct the nefarious deeds you are hinting at (even if the grunts were WILLING to do that favor for the powers that be, which, trust me, they’re not…).
Re: those orifices you referenced.
At this point I do not believe a toothpick could be driven up any of them with a sledgehammer.
As I remarked about the Pence administration and transparency is also true of the Winnecke administration and transparency, they go together like ice cream and sardines.
I am thankful that George Lumley is addressing many issues that have been festering in Evansville for a while now. It took someone like Mr. Lumley with accounting experience, time, and stubbornness to get at the heart of this crap. I hope the feds blow the lid off the people who are cheating us citizens and the next generation too. George I love your take no prisoners attitude — or rather “gather prisoners” I guess would be more correct.
Perhaps the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana would be more receptive to viewing the information Mr. Lumley has compiled.
http://www.justice.gov/usao-sdin/contact-us
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