http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2011/11/30/columbus-center-developer-faces-fine-today/EvymLKVJcnJqeV6aGqZq8O/story.html
Columbus Center developer faces $1.6m fine today
Later, prison is likely for its ex-chairman
By Casey Ross
| Globe Staff
November 30, 2011
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The company behind the failed Columbus Center development in Boston is to be sentenced in federal court today for illegally funneling $158,000 in campaign contributions to politicians in order to win government support for the massive project.
Winn Columbus Center Limited Partnership faces a fine of nearly $1.6 million and 12 months of probation under a plea agreement. The company’s former chairman, Arthur Winn, 72, has pleaded guilty to orchestrating the scheme and is scheduled to be sentenced in January. Under a plea agreement, he may get six months in prison.
Prosecutors said the conduct by Winn and his company further eroded trust in Massachusetts government after a string of other corruption cases.
“The [crime] occurred at a time in which public confidence in the political system in Massachusetts has reached an all-time low,’’ US Assistant Attorney James Dowden wrote in the sentencing memorandum.
“The facts of this crime,’’ he added, “demonstrate that far too many individuals and businesses see campaign finance laws as mere regulatory nuisances along their way to securing campaign contributions needed to advance business goals.’’
The case arose out of the federal investigation into former state senator Dianne Wilkerson, a beneficiary of Winn’s giving who was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison last year for taking bribes related to other development projects.
In an unrelated case, former Massachusetts House speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi was sentenced to eight years in prison for taking kickbacks related to a state software contract.
Between 2001 and 2009, Winn and another executive at his company illegally donated $157,900 to local, state and federal politicians to get public subsidies for Columbus Center, an $800 million condominium, hotel, and retail project.
Winn and the other executive, Martin Raffol, got friends, relatives, and vendors to donate to candidates and then reimbursed them to hide the source of the money. The contributions went to candidates including Governor Deval Patrick, former governor Mitt Romney, US Senator John Kerry, and state and Boston politicians. None was charged with wrongdoing.
Columbus Center at one point had succeeded in getting more than $60 million in government aid, but the project collapsed in 2007 after it failed to get private funding.
A lawyer for Winn Columbus Center, Mark Pearlstein, wrote in a sentencing memorandum that the company is a well-known provider of affordable housing whose projects have improved communities across the country.
“This episode, and the resulting prosecutions of its affiliate and its former executives has shaken the company,’’ he wrote. “The company has learned its lesson and has moved aggressively both to remedy all harm caused by the former executives’ wrongdoing and to reduce the risk of future occurrences.’’
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