Thursday, April 01, 1999
Voinovich investigation gets more time
Campaign laws allegedly broken
BY MICHAEL HAWTHORNE
Enquirer Columbus Bureau
COLUMBUS — A lawyer has 90 more days to investigate allegations that U.S. Sen. George Voinovich approved a scheme to launder campaign cash to his brother and a Statehouse lobbyist.
Attorney Roger J. Makley, a former federal prosecutor hired by the Ohio Elections Commission to investigate possible violations of state election laws, was scheduled to interview Mr. Voinovich on Wednesday.
Mike Dawson, Mr. Voinovich's spokesman, confirmed the senator was scheduled to meet the special investigator in Columbus. But Mr. Makley refused to describe the content of the deposition or confirm that it took place.
While Mr. Makley was supposed to have finished his probe by now, the bipartisan, seven-member commission gave him an additional 90 days to complete his work.
“We want a thorough inves tigation,” said Alphonse Cincione, commission chairman.
The investigator told reporters his probe has been aided by secret documents from a Cincinnati federal grand jury.
Publicly released testimony before the grand jury accused George Voinovich — Ohio's governor from 1991 to 1998 — of approving a plan in 1994 to launder $60,000 from his political fund to reimburse brother Paul Voinovich and Michael Fabiano, a former Statehouse lobbyist.
The money allegedly was part of a scheme to pay Anthony A. “Ray” Gallagher to secure support from labor unions for George Voinovich's re- election campaign. It was funneled through a firm owned by the late Nick Mamais, a Columbus political consultant, according to documents filed with the elections commission.
George Voinovich and his brother submitted sworn statements in December denying allegations they met and discussed a plan to disguise payments to Mr. Gallagher.
David Young, the senator's attorney, said Mr. Voinovich will fully cooperate with authorities.
“We have no concerns,” Mr. Young said. “We are 100 percent sure there is nothing that ties the senator/former governor to this matter.”
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