Thursday, December 5, 2024

Curing Garmento Braggadocio.


Law Office of John J. Tormey III, Esq.
John J. Tormey III, PLLC
1636 Third Avenue, PMB 188
New York, NY  10128  USA
(212) 410-4142 (phone)
(212) 410-2380 (fax)
jtormey@optonline.net
https://www.tormey.org
 
Thursday, December 5, 2024
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
James.Dennehy@ic.fbi.gov
James E. Dennehy, Assistant Director in Charge
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
New York Field Office
26 Federal Plaza, 23rd Floor
New York, New York 10278-0004 USA
 
Re:
The Current “Risk Assessment” Of The Village Of Piermont NY, By The NYS Comptroller’s Office

The Apparent Possible Disappearance Of US$3,200,000+ In Public Funds In The Lower Hudson Valley
 
Dear Assistant Director in Charge Dennehy, and Colleagues:
 
I write, further to my prior letters to FBI regarding Piermont, New York - dated April 15, 2024, April 18, 2024, and July 20, 2024, respectively:

I have new information for FBI review. In my opinion, these items, taken together, may signify a possible and yet-unexplained disappearance of US$3,200,000+ in public funds, once managed by the Village of Piermont New York government and its current Mayor, one Bruce Edward Tucker, an infamous former garment industry sheet and towel wholesaler out of Elizabeth, New Jersey:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/11/piermont-mayor-bruce-tucker-and-rainbow.html
 
1. Piermont Village Government And Bruce Tucker Are Currently Operating Under OSC “Risk Assessment”. As you are likely already aware, Mayor Bruce Tucker and Piermont village government are under a current “Risk Assessment” by the Office of the New York State Comptroller (OSC):
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/11/newsflash-office-of-new-york-state.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/11/bruce-tucker-of-whole-cloth.html
During his mayoral reign, Mayor Bruce Tucker and Piermont government appear to have spent unsuspecting Piermont village residents into a negative US$7,600,000 “Net Position” hole while concealing financials from the Village’s website for approximately four years. Tucker and the Village of Piermont then failed to timely furnish financial information to OSC for inclusion in OSC’s Fiscal Stress Monitoring System, even after an extended deadline - thereby permanently preventing inclusion therein:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/07/he-spent-it.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/07/that-time-when-bruce-tucker-sandbagged.html
 
2. Mayor Tucker Bragged About Piermont’s Financial Condition In An April 2024 Meeting. In an April 16, 2024 Village of Piermont Board of Trustees public meeting, while engaging in what appears to have been false braggadocio about the Village’s financial condition, Mayor Bruce Tucker stated that the Village maintained a US$3,200,000+ million dollars as an “unassigned Fund Balance” surplus:
See “Incorporated Village or Piermont, Board of Trustees Meeting”, April 16, 2024 Minutes, Page 4 of 8, at:
https://cms9files1.revize.com/piermont/document_center/Agendas%20&%20Minutes/2024/Minutes/BOT%20Meeting%20Minutes%20April%2016%202024.pdf
Yet in that same meeting Mayor Tucker shiftily refused to convey the bulk of that fund balance back to Piermont taxpayers who were just hit with a 6.9% tax increase:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/08/watch-as-mayor-bruce-tucker-blows-away.html
 
3. Mayor Tucker Also Bragged About Piermont’s Financial Condition To A Local Rag. Mayor Bruce Tucker essentially repeated the same claim through a subsequent fluff-piece interview with the Rockland County Business Journal (“RCBJ”), a local blogged website notorious for running mouthpiece items for Rockland County public officials:
https://rcbizjournal.com/2024/07/30/piermont-mayor-bruce-tucker-talks-about-controversy-engulfing-his-village/
 
4. Mayor Tucker And Piermont Government Now Appear To Plead Poverty. Yet faced more recently with the reality of the imminent collapse of, and needed repair or replacement of, the tip of the historic, iconic, and well-beloved Piermont Pier, Mayor Tucker and Piermont Village Hall are now, in effect, pleading poverty. Press reports indicate that the Piermont Village Board is “investigating the possibility of potential [g]rants[emphasis added] that may be available to replace” the crumbling Piermont Pier section:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/11/attention-piermont-residents-your-mayor.html
Moreover, Mayor Bruce Tucker himself was quoted in this November 29, 2024 LoHud/Journal News article as pathetically begging for money to replace the crumbling Pier tip. Said Tucker:
 
“The Village Board was working on obtaining cost quotes to replace the concrete portion, which includes seeking grants… ‘We are going to need some major money here’, Tucker said. ‘If anyone has any money, we’d love to talk to them’”. [Emphasis added]:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/11/piermont-piers-final-section-closed.html
 
5. One Of The Tucker-Associated Non-Profits Is Begging People For US$10,000. Upon information and belief, Bruce Tucker and the Village of Piermont government use two apparent not-for-profit entities to front certain of their efforts and activities throughout the year. As I understand it, Mayor Bruce Tucker maintains a close connection to both entities. These entities are:
 
- “Piermont Civic Association” (501[c][3], IRS ruling year: 2014, EIN: 80-0916072):
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/800916072
 
- “Piermont Historical Society” (501[c][3], IRS ruling year: 2007, EIN: 56-2597821):
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/562597821/202331299349202958/full
 
I am not yet able to locate an on-file Form 990 for “Piermont Civic Association”.
 
“Piermont Historical Society”, on the other hand, lists Mayor Bruce Tucker’s own residential Piermont address, as the non-profit's address, on its most recent Form 990:

In any event, in perhaps the most unabashed of recent actions, Bruce Tucker’s Village of Piermont, through Piermont Civic Association, appears to be now openly soliciting US$10,000 in funds for Christmas lights directly from Piermont residents and others on social media. Piermont Civic Association actually requests that donors either mail their checks to, or else drop them off at, Piermont Village Hall at 478 Piermont Avenue. Piermont Civic Association further requests that the checks be made out to “Village of Piermont”:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/12/just-make-your-checks-payable-to.html
 
*          *          *          *          *
This all raises what I believe to be a valid question worth further FBI exploration.
 
If Mayor Bruce Tucker and the Village of Piermont already have US$3,200,000+ effectively banked as an “unassigned Fund Balance”, then why are they begging for donors for Piermont Pier repair and even for US$10,000 worth of Christmas lights?
 
Respectfully submitted,

John J. Tormey III, Esq.
 
cc:
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
Leslie.Backschies@ic.fbi.gov
Leslie Rodrigues Backschies, Special Agent in Charge
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
New York Field Office
26 Federal Plaza, 23rd Floor
New York, New York 10278-0004 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
Christie.Curtis@ic.fbi.gov
Christie M. Curtis, Special Agent in Charge
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
New York Field Office
26 Federal Plaza, 23rd Floor
New York, New York 10278-0004 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
Robert.Kissane@ic.fbi.gov
Robert Kissane, Special Agent in Charge
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
New York Field Office
26 Federal Plaza, 23rd Floor
New York, New York 10278-0004 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL
Eric J. Reese, Special Agent in Charge
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
New York Field Office
26 Federal Plaza, 23rd Floor
New York, New York 10278-0004 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL
Felix A. Rivera, Special Agent in Charge
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
New York Field Office
26 Federal Plaza, 23rd Floor
New York, New York 10278-0004 USA







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