Franken faces $25,000 workers' comp penalty
Campaign spokesman Andy Barr said that neither Franken nor his wife, Franni, were aware of the matter before Tuesday. They have lived in Minneapolis for the past few years and did not know about the state's attempts to reach them in New York City, he said.
"If it's wrong, they will pay what they owe," Barr said.
How generous of the Frankens to pay workers' compensation insurance three years after the fact.
"It's also possible that there's some kind of dispute that may be resolved in our favor," Bar continued. "This is, at worst, some kind of misunderstanding between [the Frankens'] bookkeeping system and the state's."
I wonder whose "misunderstanding" it was since it looks like Franken's hand may have gotten caught in the workers' comp cookie jar.
News of Franken's penalty was reported Tuesday in the Minnesota Democrats Exposed website run by Republican blogger Michael Brodkorb.
Go, Michael!
In financial disclosure forms that Franken filed last year with the U.S. Senate, he listed a salary of just over $1 million from Alan Franken Inc. The corporation, set up in 1991, provides Franken's services and collects fees and residuals for his work.
I wonder what Franken's salary would have been had he paid workers' comp.
According to Brian Keegan, a spokesman for the Workers' Compensation Board, New York officials began looking into the Franken corporation after a standard check of employers found that Alan Franken Inc. was not insuring employees for workers' compensation as required by state law.
It may have been a choice between paying workers' comp or making sure Franken made "just over $1 million."
According to state records, the New York Department of Labor found that the corporation had from one to six people working for it between February 2003 and August 2005, and as many as 17 in October 2005, Keegan said.
Those workers were classified as "independent artists, writers or performers," requiring their employer to cover them for workers' compensation, Keegan said.
The Workers' Compensation Board began sending Franken notices in April 2005 after discovering that the insurance hadn't been paid for nearly three years.
Officials first sought an explanation. Receiving no response, they sent a penalty notice to Franken in June 2005 that outlined rights to appeal.
The state then turned to a collection agency to reach Franken. When that didn't work, the state tried again in July 2006. Penalty statements were sent in August and December of 2006 and March 2007, Keegan said.
The judgment was finally entered against Franken in May 2007, and another notice sent by certified mail to his Manhattan apartment. Since then, Keegan said, three more statements have been sent -- the most recent in January -- without response.
Silence is golden. So much for Franken's "defender of the common man" act. When the little guys needed Franken, they got stiffed.
The Frankens bought a townhouse in Minneapolis in April 2005. Barr said that the corporation relocated to Minneapolis in January 2006.I don't know. I may be wrong, but it sure looks like Franken's corporation skipped town.
But that's not all, boys and girls. It's happened before. Get a load of this next paragraph,
Alan Franken Inc. appears in New York records one other time, when it failed to pay withholding taxes for July 1996. A lien against the corporation was filed in Nassau County in June 1997 for $2,948.30, and the case was closed a short time later, said Tom Bergin, a spokesman with the New York Department of Taxation and Finance.
In a statement, Franken's campaign manager Andy Barr said, "I can categorically deny that there was any attempt to evade responsibility, and I doubt that there was some kind of error that was made, although until we know all the facts I can't say for sure what happened."
Sure, Andy.
This is not the first time that the former Air Amerika Radio talk show host has been connected to financial shenanigans. How many of you remember this from 2005?
Bronx Boys Club's Finances Investigated
The state attorney general's office and the city's Department of Investigation are looking into whether a boys and girls club serving poor children and ailing elderly people in the Bronx had improper financial dealings, including loans to the Air America radio network, state and city officials said yesterday.
The separate investigations are trying to determine whether the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, run from an office in Co-op City in the Bronx, made improper loans of up to $875,000 to the radio network, known for its liberal programming and hosts like the comedian Al Franken, the officials said.
And,
Jim Grossman, a spokesman for Gloria Wise, said the club had given Air America about $875,000, though he added that he did not know exactly how, or in what form, it had been given. He also said the club and the network had reached an agreement under which the money had been placed in escrow and would eventually be repaid to the club.
At the time, Franken was quoted as saying,
"I don't know why they did it, and I don't know where the money went. I don't know if it was used for operations, which I imagine it was. I think he was robbing Peter to pay Paul."
Mr. Franken also said that the network's new owners "don't legally have to pay it back" - referring to the loans - "because we're a different company or something."
"But morally we do," he said.
Franken is definitely not a straight talker. I don't know about you, but I don't think Mr. Airhead Amerika has the authority to speak about the moral thing to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment