Former Clinton Official Grilled On Air America Case

With Goodfriends Like These

Deposition: Air America Execs Long Knew Of Gloria Wise $$$



David Lombino's much-anticipated New York Sun piece on former Air America Exec/Clinton Administration official David Goodfriend has now been published, with interesting insights.

Continuing a pattern where current and former network officials look to protect their interests against potential criminal and civil liabilities, it's the ultimate in corporate CYA.

When it comes to fallout over the apparent transfer of $875,000 in taxpayer funds from an inner-city community center to the liberal radio network, nobody seems to want to take responsibility. Goodfriend here is quick to pin the blame on everyone around him, particularly former college friend Evan Montvel-Cohen.

Though Lombino's report doesn't name the leaked deposition's source, connected to Multicultural Broadcasting's lawsuit against Air America parent company Piquant LLC, the Radio Equalizer independently understands it could be Goodfriend himself.


From today's story:


Mr. Goodfriend said in the deposition that when investors found out about the money from the Boys & Girls Club, "They hear this and hear about other liabilities and conclude, I think we better just form a new company clean of any old liabilities."

Mr. Goodfriend, now a Washington based lawyer, said in the sworn deposition that he refused to sign an agreement that transferred ownership and assets of Air America to a new company, Piquant LLC, from Progress Media because he believed it constituted a "fraudulent conveyance."

A spokeswoman for Piquant has denied that the transfer of ownership was fraudulent. Mr. Goodfriend, now 37, had met the founder of Air America, Evan Montvel Cohen, when they both attended Beloit College in Wisconsin.

Mr. Goodfriend said in the deposition that he thought Mr. Cohen borrowed the Gloria Wise funds and disguised them as his own personal investment in the radio network.

"The notion that money left the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club so that Evan could pretend that he was investing in Air America sickened me to my core," Mr. Goodfriend said in the deposition.

Mr. Goodfriend said he was introduced to the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club by Mr. Cohen, who simultaneously served as chairman of Air America and development director for the Bronx nonprofit. According to the deposition, Mr. Cohen had persuaded Mr. Goodfriend to join a Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club advisory board and visit the facility in Coop City.

Mr. Goodfriend testified that after he left the radio network he spoke several times to Charles Rosen, who served as executive director of the club, and that Mr. Rosen had approved the transfers of $875,000.

Mr. Rosen did not return repeated phone messages left by the Sun at his home. According to the deposition, sometime after Mr. Goodfriend left Air America in May 2004, he received a phone call from Charles Rosen's brother, Jacob, who said Mr. Cohen had offered to "invest" in his company.

"They had some small telecommunications startup that he wrote checks on the [Progress Media] account that were bounced for insufficient funds that led to the bankruptcy of their company. And they asked me for help to try to have some recourse," Mr. Goodfriend said in the deposition.

Mr. Goodfriend said he had been unaware that Progress Media was a vehicle for investment in ventures other than Air America. He said he learned of the transfers from the Boys & Girls Club in early May 2004 from Air America's vice president of finance, Sinohe Terrero, a former employee of the club who recently resigned from Air America.

The information about the Gloria Wise debt was passed on to Air America's investors in early May 2004, according to Mr. Goodfriend.


Most significant may be that last sentence, where Goodfriend says everyone was in the loop on the Gloria Wise loans clear back to May 2004. That flies in the face of Al Franken's assertion it took recent "forensic accounting" to discover what happened.

Michelle Malkin and I will have our own updates coming as well, stay tuned.


AAR Scandal logo by Darleen Click.

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