Top Stringer Fundraiser’s Firm Misused Minority Business Programs: Records
(DNAINFO) James Fanelli | November 14, 2016 — Larry Roman, who owns WDF, raised more than $28,000 for Stringer’s 2013 campaign.
Since taking office, Comptroller Scott Stringer has ripped Mayor Bill de Blasio in speeches and in annual reports over the low number of minority- and women-owned businesses getting city contracts, most recently giving the de Blasio administration a D+ in its efforts to improve opportunities for these firms.
But the criticism didn’t stop Stringer from relying on a fundraiser whose plumbing company and affiliated construction firms have a record of misusing programs that encourage partnerships with disadvantaged businesses.
On top of his own $2,500 contribution, the fundraiser, Lawrence Roman, bundled $25,910 in donations to Stringer’s 2013 campaign.
Roman’s firm, WDF Inc., also co-sponsored a diversity conference in October 2014 where Stringer spoke critically of the city lagging behind the state in awarding contracts to women and minority business owners.
A month later, WDF quietly reached a deal with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the Port Authority’s inspector general to end an investigation into fraud and misuse of contracting programs intended to help minority-owned, women-owned and disadvantaged business enterprises, or MWBEs.
WDF and other city contractors had been under investigation over the use of MWBE supply companies that were in reality acting as straw firms.