New York's Cesspool Widens

Pavement contractor Russell Ball pounded over bribes
The New York Daily News by JOHN MARZULLI - April 17, 2009

A politcally connected contractor was charged yesterday with bribing Con Ed supervisors to approve his inflated invoices for repair work on streets damaged by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, authorities said. Russell Ball, 82, chief executive officer of Roadway Contracting Inc. in Brooklyn, is accused of paying $30,000 in kickbacks to Con Ed employees. Prosecutors say he made the payments to ensure Con Ed would approve inflated and bogus charges for work on projects for the city Department of Environmental Protection and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Ball has been a major contractor on many transit projects, including the Second Ave. subway line. After federal agents questioned Roadway's lawyer about suspicious payments, Ball confronted an accomplice he feared was cooperating with the government. "Ball initiated this meeting by handing [the accomplice] a note asking if he was 'wired,' " according to the complaint unsealed in Brooklyn Federal Court. Ball's name surfaced in an upstate indictment this year charging former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno with corruption. The indictment says Bruno received $270,000 in "consulting fees" from Ball, which amounted to gifts because Bruno "did not perform legitimate work commensurate with the payments." Magistrate Roanne Mann released Ball on $100,000 bail. His lawyer refused to comment. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Coyne is heading the ongoing probe that resulted in the arrests of 10 Con Ed supervisors who pocketed more than $1 million in kickbacks from contractors. jmarzulli@nydailynews.com