FBI probed Morse’s cash deposit
Focus of scrutiny includes campaign donations, deals
The FBI’S investigation of Cohoes Mayor Shawn M. Morse has focused on a large amount of cash that the mayor was allegedly carrying on the night the city hosted a Christmas party for its government employees and other guests in December 2017.
People interviewed by the FBI during the investigation, which stretches back at least two years, said the probe also has examined the mayor’s dealings with developers, including when he was chairman of the Albany County Legislature, and also a series of large campaign donations Morse had received from Council 82, a law enforcement labor union based in Albany.
Ralph V. Signoracci, the mayor’s longtime campaign treasurer, was questioned by FBI agents and federal prosecutors about the deposit of a “large sum of money” that Morse allegedly made around the time the 2017 Christmas party took place, according to two people with knowledge of the federal investigation but not authorized to comment publicly on the case.
Signoracci, 44, told federal authorities that he was not aware of any large withdrawals of campaign funds that month, and that he had no knowledge of where the money may have come from, the two people said. Signoracci and his attorney, James E. Long, both declined comment for this story.
Morse, 51, did not respond to a request for comment. His attorney, William J. Dreyer, also declined to comment.
Michael Durocher, the comptroller for the city of Cohoes, said the annual Christmas party for city employees and their guests is paid from a “celebration fund” that’s part of the city’s budget. The party used to be held in City Hall and cost several hundred dollars, but Morse, after being elected mayor in 2015, moved the event to an outside venue.
The annual event usually costs between $2,500 and $2,800, according to Durocher. People who have attended the event said that it’s not unusual for developers or business owners to be invited. It has been held at Smith’s restaurant on Remsen Street for the past two years.
Morse was arrested Feb. 28 on a federal indictment that charges him with conspiring with Signoracci to siphon thousands of dollars in political donations for his personal expenditures, including vacations, restaurant outings and home repairs. Signoracci pleaded guilty to a felony wire fraud charge in U.S. District Court on March 7.
None of the cash withdrawals from campaign accounts — which ranged from $500 to $5,000 — took place in December 2017. The lone $5,000 withdrawal from one of Morse’s campaign accounts was made in August 2015, a few days before Morse went on vacation in Wildwood, N.J. During the vacation, according to prosecutors, Morse spent the funds at “hotels, restaurants and retailers.”
According to the indictment filed against Morse, the only improper withdrawal of campaign funds around the time of the December 2017 Christmas party took place in January 2018. Signoracci allegedly cashed a $1,500 check from the Friends of Shawn Morse political account and gave the money to the mayor that month.
The seven-count felony indictment charges Morse with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Morse has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to stand trial on April 29. He is also charged with one count of lying to FBI agents when they questioned him last September about the campaign cash withdrawals.
The FBI’S probe of the mayor’s December 2017 banking deposit — which is not part of the pending indictment — coincides with a detailed account that Brenda Morse, the mayor’s estranged wife, provided last year to investigators with both the Albany County sheriff’s department and the district attorney’s office, when they were investigating her allegations of domestic abuse by her husband.
According to two sources familiar with that investigation, Brenda Morse told investigators that the mayor was carrying a very large amount of cash — she estimated thousands of dollars — when he came home that night from the city’s Christmas party. She told the investigators that she had removed a small amount of cash from the roll after her husband fell asleep.
At the time of that incident, the couple’s marriage was starting to break apart and Brenda Morse had no source of income. A month earlier, she had called 911 and told a dispatcher that her husband had grabbed her throat and thrown her to the ground during an argument at their Grandview Avenue residence.
Brenda Morse later filed for divorce, but subsequently withdrew the court filing. She has retracted her allegations of physical abuse more than once, most recently in an email attributed to her that was sent to the mayor’s attorney in late January.
Morse has denied he choked his wife and has not been charged in that or other alleged domestic violence incidents. The State Police had also probed allegations made by Morse’s 16-year-old daughter that he physically abused her, including choking her and punching her in the head.
Colonie police recently said they had closed their investigation into a complaint by Morse’s wife that he had grabbed her arm and spit on her during a dispute at a Wolf Road restaurant last year. Colonie police said they could not sustain the allegations and discovered “inconsistencies” in her account.
It’s unclear whether local investigators shared with the FBI Brenda Morse’s account of finding a large amount of cash in her husband’s clothing.
A person interviewed by the FBI, who spoke to the Times Union on the condition of anonymity, said the agents also have asked questions about Morse’s dealings with Joseph R. Nicolla of Columbia Development, a politically connected developer who last year had his criminal charges in an unrelated bid-rigging case dropped by the state attorney general’s office.
The attorney general’s scuttled case against Nicolla was related to his firm’s work for SUNY Polytechnic Institute, and had no apparent connections to Morse or Albany County government.
In 2012, Morse was chairman of the county Legislature when the county took steps to purchase a Family Court building in Albany that it had been renting from Columbia Development for seven years. The county had spent more than $15 million in rent on the building before agreeing to buy it that year for $22.5 million in a deal that county Comptroller Michael Conners later characterized as a “sweetheart gift” for the developer.
The federal probe also examined Morse’s time and attendance after he was hired in February 2018 as a part-time security officer at the Glenmont Job Corps, a federally subsidized jobtraining facility, according to two people briefed on the investigation.
In August, investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General visited the Glenmont facility, where they reviewed documentation and interviewed the former security manager, Patrick Thomas, who no longer works there. They were probing whether Morse was paid for working when he was not at the
facility, according to one of the people with knowledge of the investigation. No charges are pending related to that portion of the investigation.
A few months ago, FBI agents took records from Council 82’s headquarters on Colvin Avenue, according to a person associated with that organization who was interviewed by the FBI. The labor union was the primary contributor to a political fund known as The Chairman’s PAC, which Morse had set up when he was chairman of the Albany County Legislature.
Council 82 had donated more than $22,000 of the $33,000 that had been in the PAC at one point. In 2014, the Times Union reported that Morse’s Chairman’s PAC received a $10,000 donation from Council 82 around the time Morse, as chairman of the Legislature, had pushed a measure granting exemptions to dozens of Albany County employees who had lived outside the county in violation of a long-standing residency requirement.
At the time, Morse denied the donation from Council 82 was connected to the passage of that legislation.
The PAC was established in order for Morse to raise political donations to support the campaigns of legislative candidates who supported him. But authorities said he donated less than $1,400 to other campaigns. Federal prosecutors allege Morse illegally used a majority of the money in The Chairman’s PAC to support his mayoral campaign — more than $13,000 — and also for personal expenses.