Senate President Malcolm Smith ripped Cora Wheeling, 70, and her husband off, cheating them of over $60,000. Farriella, DelMundo for NewsSenate President Malcolm Smith ripped off an elderly Queens couple he'd promised to build a dream house for in a land deal under scrutiny by the FBI, the Daily News has learned.
Cora Wheeling, 70, and her husband, Eddie, 71, wound up with no home to show for the $88,200 they put down toward a split-level Smith claimed he'd build them.
They sued in 1998; Smith still owes them more than $60,000.
"I didn't know he's a rat," an irate Cora Wheeling said. "I should have known better."
The house was supposed to be part of a subdivision Smith was trying to build on 230th St. in Cambria Heights. That deal is at the center of an expanding federal probe, sources said.
The FBI is also looking at why Smith got a steep discount from an architect hired for a job at that same address. The architect then got work at nonprofits Smith has funded with taxpayer dollars.
Investigators want to know if Smith used his influence as an elected official to benefit himself financially, a possibly criminal conflict of interest.
"Every day it's something else, but these investigators are chasing their tail," said Smith's lawyer, Gerald Shargel. "Malcolm Smith did nothing wrong."
For the Wheelings, Smith's behavior was worse than a mere conflict of interest.
In August 1997, the retired hostess from the old Shea Stadium Diamond Club and her car mechanic husband put down money she won in a medical malpractice suit toward the construction of a $316,000 split-level.
The house was to include two fireplaces, a garage and gold bathroom fixtures. Smith promised to obtain permits right away. He did nothing, and by October 1998, the couple sued.
Smith's partner and lawyer, Joan Flowers, argued the Wheelings were in breach of contract.
A judge rejected that claim. The case was settled in May 2001, with Smith agreeing to pay the Wheelings $63,000. The first check bounced.
A year later, Flowers asked to extend the repayment because, among other reasons, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks had hurt Smith's pocketbook. The judge extended it, but upped the total to $66,000.
The Wheelings wound up buying a home on Long Island.
As of last week, Smith still owed the Wheelings more than $60,000 - which infuriates Cora Wheeling every time she hears reports about corruption in Albany.
"I get angry every time I see him on TV," she said. "I don't want to see him getting paid by taxpayers."
Architect Robert Gaskin also wound up not getting everything Smith promised on the same 230th St. subdivision - but it apparently worked out for him in the end.
Gaskin set a fee of $22,000 to draft plans to divide Smith's land into three lots. Records show Smith paid Gaskin only $10,000.
Smith may have made up for it in other ways. After winning the 230th St. job, Gaskin then got several jobs from other entities tied to Smith.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's office has subpoenaed records of Gaskin's work on 230th St., a charter school and other properties in an ongoing criminal investigation of corruption in Queens.
The land was owned by Smith M. Realty, but Gaskin was paid through an entity called 230th Street Associates. Smith's partner, Flowers, signed the checks.
A month after getting the first check for $5,000 from 230th Street Associates on July 29, 1999, Gaskin submitted an invoice for $15,000. He received another $5,000 check from 230th, then billed for the rest.
He never got it. Gaskin was able to produce checks totaling no more than $10,000 toward the total $22,000 fee.
Gaskin claimed he did not pursue the rest because he did less work than he thought he would.
The second $5,000 check Gaskin got from Smith's firm is dated Aug. 29, 1999. He soon started getting work from other entities tied to Smith.
In June 2000, Flowers hired Gaskin to work on a building that housed her law office. It later was an address for a title company owned by Smith and a nonprofit tied to Smith, New Directions Development Corp. The estimated cost of the job was $30,000, but Gaskin said he got much less.
Gaskin also did some work for New Directions, records show, although he claims he doesn't remember that job. Smith has steered $56,000 to the nonprofit.
In March 2001, Gaskin won a more lucrative job worth $85,000 - this time turning an old bowling alley into a Queens Village charter school Smith was helping to start called the Merrick Academy.
Gaskin said he has turned over all the documents he could find on properties tied to Queens politicians, including work he did for a developer building Rep. Gregory Meeks' Queens home, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall and former congressman the Rev. Floyd Flake.
Gaskin is not the target of the investigation, and his lawyer, Brian Davis, emphasized Gaskin has not been asked to appear before a grand jury.
Gaskin insists he did no favors for any of the pols.
"We've gotten work the old-fashioned way; we are prolific at marketing," he said. "We've never gotten a job asking any political entity for work. Never, never."
