EX-MTA AUDITOR ACCUSED OF CONFLICT.Byline: Chip Jacobs Daily News Staff Writer The state's political watchdog commission this week accused the MTA's former chief auditor of breaching conflict-of-interest laws stemming from his financial ties to a controversial colleague. Filiberto Martinez, who was fired by the transit agency in February in connection with the probe, could face $6,000 in fines from the California Fair Political Practices Commission, documents show. Martinez's lawyer, however, said his client is innocent and the target of overzealous o·ver·zeal·ous adj. Excessively enthusiastic: overzealous movie fans; an overzealous manager. o investigators. The state's case against Martinez began after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's inspector general launched an inquiry last year and recommended prosecution by the commission. At issue was Martinez's personal relationship with Abdoul Sessay, an MTA (1) (Message Transfer Agent or Mail Transfer Agent) The store and forward part of a messaging system. See messaging system. (2) See M Technology Association. 1. (messaging) MTA - Message Transfer Agent. insurance manager for whom Martinez signed a lease in 1992 on a Mercedes Benz Mercedes Benz expensive automobile and status symbol. [Trademarks: Crowley Trade, 368] See : Luxury . Sessay was sacked after he pleaded guilty last fall to federal charges for accepting roughly $100,000 in kickbacks from MTA insurance consultants. In doing so, he became the first person convicted in the ongoing federal-local probe of fraud and corruption on the $5.8 billion Metro Rail project. FPPC FPPC Fair Political Practices Commission (California) FPPC Fédération du Personnel Professionnel des Collèges FPPC Fieldpoint Petroleum Corporation (stock symbol) FPPC Farm Pilot Project Coordination, Inc. records show that Sessay needed Martinez to sign the lease because he had credit problems, but notes that Sessay made the $413-a-month lease payments on the Mercedes until last year when he lost his job. The FPPC complaint charges Martinez with three counts of violating state law, including failure to reveal the lease arrangement on one of his disclosure statements, as required by law. He is also charged with not disqualifying dis·qual·i·fy tr.v. dis·qual·i·fied, dis·qual·i·fy·ing, dis·qual·i·fies 1. a. To render unqualified or unfit. b. To declare unqualified or ineligible. 2. himself on a 1993 audit that found that Sessay and co-workers had improperly received about $5,000 worth of free meals, travel and entertainment from an agency contractor. The third count charges that Martinez failed to reveal Sessay's illegal activities to transit officials and ``buried audit findings'' against him, delaying inquiries into Sessay's relationship to the contractor. Ravi Mehta, an FPPC commissioner, wouldn't comment directly on the Martinez case, which may not be decided by an administrative law judge administrative law judge n. a professional hearing officer who works for the government to preside over hearings and appeals involving governmental agencies. They are generally experienced in the particular subject matter of the agency involved or of several agencies. for a year. ``But cases that involve conflicts of interest are taken extremely seriously by the commission because they involve breaches of the public trust,'' Mehta said. Martinez's lawyer, Wayne Ordos Ordos (ôr`dōs), Mandarin Erdesi, sandy desert plateau region, c.35,000 sq mi (90,650 sq km), Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, N China; almost encircled by the great northern bend of the Huang He. , said his client did not violate the law and asserted that Martinez never received any financial benefit from the car lease. ``And not only did he disqualify To deprive of eligibility or render unfit; to disable or incapacitate. To be disqualified is to be stripped of legal capacity. A wife would be disqualified as a juror in her husband's trial for murder due to the nature of their relationship. himself from the audit to avoid perceptions of impropriety, but as soon as the results were in, he reported it to management,'' said Ordos, the FPPC's former executive director. ``The MTA inspector general has been very aggressive in this case, for reasons I can't tell you.'' MTA officials, including agency inspector general Arthur Sinai, declined comment. In a brief interview, Martinez on Thursday said he was considering joining a host of other ex-MTA employees in a wrongful termination wrongful termination n. a right of an employee to sue his/her employer for damages (loss of wage and "fringe" benefits, and, if against "public policy," for punitive damages). lawsuit. |
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