Reclusive, 104-year-old Heiress Huguette Clark Lavished "Millions" on Her Lawyer by Dan Mangan - NYPOST.com

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EXPLOSIVE: Estate lawyer Wallace Bock allegedly got a $1.5 million check from reclusive Huguette Clark to build a "bomb shelter."

A 104-year-old heiress lavished "millions" of dollars in gifts on the family of her lawyer, who is now under investigation for his handling of her finances as she lives out her days in a Manhattan hospital, an ex-employee told The Post.

Huguette Clark once bought at auction a dol lhouse worth well more than $10,000 for lawyer Wallace Bock's grand daughter, and gave him a check for about $1.5 mil lion to build a "bomb shelter" for a settlement in Israel where his daughter and her family live, two people said yesterday.

Bock's co-workers were so amused by his reliance on the copper heiress that they once gave the estate lawyer a purported signed copy of her last will and testament -- which named him as a big beneficiary -- at the firm's holiday party, said Bock's former paralegal, Cynthia Garcia.

"It was a joke," said Garcia.

Bock, after initially being stunned because he thought it was the real deal, then realized the document was phony, Garcia said. "But he kept it," she added.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office is aggressively investigating Bock, 78, and Clark's accountant, Irving Kamsler, 63, for allegedly mismanaging Clark's $500 million fortune. Kamsler is on probation for attempting to send porn via the Internet to an undercover detective posing as an underage girl.

"What they're doing to her is horrible," Garcia said, referring to Clark and her millions.

Garcia said Bock called her Thursday night -- after years of no contact -- and asked her not to discuss with anyone his dealings with Clark. He also allegedly asked if she had gone on "vacation recently."

"He sounded patronizing . . . and so desperate to placate me," Garcia said.

Hours later, the DA's Office called Garcia and left a message asking to speak with her, she said.

Bock's spokesman, Michael McKeon, said, "After more than 50 years as an attorney, Wally Bock has an excellent reputation and an unblemished record. Any inquiry will confirm that all matters have been handled appropriately and consistent with Ms. Clark's wishes."

"We believe Ms. Garcia is confused about the facts," McKeon said.

Kamsler refuses to comment.

Clark, whose US senator-father was America's second richest man in the early 1900s, has spent more than 20 years living in New York City hospitals, and is currently at Beth Israel Medical Center.

Meanwhile, her 42-room Fifth Avenue apartment is unoccupied, and her lavish mansions in California and New Canaan, Conn., have been vacant for more than 50 years, costing her millions of dollars in maintenance and taxes.

Garcia said Bock has several daughters and grandchildren living in Israel, and that after 9/11 he had Garcia write to Clark asking for $1.5 million to "build a bomb shelter" in Israel.

"He was not asking other people" for money, Garcia said. "In less than an hour," they received a check in that amount from Clark, Garcia said.

A source close to Bock confirmed that Clark, for the purposes of building a security system to protect against a terror attack, had made the substantial donation to the West Bank settlement where Bock's daughter and grandchildren live.

The donation was initially held in escrow by a lawyer there before the shelter was built, the source said.

With Rebecca Rosenberg, Laura Italiano, Sabrina Ford and Jeane MacIntosh

Bloomberg Scolds Reporters Again by David Chen - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

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Mayor Bloomberg is really one of the most arrogant men on the face of this earth...

On some days, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg can be quite charming and courteous with the press, congratulating reporters who have gotten married or given birth.

Monday was not one of those days.

When asked his reaction to the indictment of John F. Haggerty Jr., a Queens political operative who had become close to Mr. Bloomberg, the mayor was curt and prickly.

First, he said that the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., had asked him not to talk about the case.

“There’s nothing else I can say about this,” he said.

When asked about reaction to critics of his contributions to the state’s Independence Party, which were at the heart of Mr. Haggerty’s legal woes, Mr. Bloomberg said: “I have a right to make donations to support people and parties that I think will help this city and this country and this state, and I’ll continue to do it.”

And about the question of why he hired poll watchers on Election Day?

“Miss!” Mr. Bloomberg began. “I’m sorry that my English isn’t apparently good enough for you.”

Finally, when asked how the case had affected him personally, since he and Mr. Haggerty had, by all accounts, developed a close bond, Mr. Bloomberg began: “Miss, I just said ——”

“What will you say to him next time ——”

“You’re not listening to the words, and the district attorney, Cy Vance, who I think is a very good district attorney, asked us not to talk and we’re not going to talk,” the mayor answered.

Mr. Bloomberg looked at another reporter and said, “We will take a legitimate question from you.”

Top Republican Indicted Over Bloomberg Campaign Funds by David Chen - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

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A top campaign operative for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is expected to be indicted on Monday by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office in connection with charges that he stole $1 million in campaign funds, according to people familiar with the case.

The operative, John F. Haggerty Jr., 41, is expected to be charged with two counts of grand larceny and money laundering, according to people familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to upstage a new conference Monday morning by Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan District Attorney.

Mr. Haggerty’s attorney, Dennis C. Vacco, could not be reached for comment on Monday morning. But during apparent plea negotiations over the past few weeks, he has declined to discuss the case.

The exact details of the financial theft prosecutors claim Mr. Haggerty committed were not immediately available.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Vance declined to comment.
A spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg also declined to comment. But one person close to the mayor said that a plea deal or an indictment had been anticipated for some time. “I had expected it to be done by now so maybe the fact that it hasn’t happened yet means they’re negotiating,” this person said.

The indictment culminates an investigation by Mr. Vance’s office into what became of a $750,000 campaign payment from Mr. Bloomberg that went to a company established by Mr. Haggerty, a veteran Queens Republican leader.

Mr. Bloomberg paid the state Independence Party, whose endorsement he had won, $1.2 million last year. The party then paid $750,000 of that money to Special Election Operations L.L.C., a company established by Mr. Haggerty, to bankroll an Election Day operation in northern Queens, with up to 300 workers reportedly paid $500 each.

But the party and the Bloomberg campaign believe that operation cost considerably less than $750,000, and they say that if Mr. Haggerty kept any extra money, he was not entitled to do so.

The investigation, which has been going on for months, has already raised questions about the unusual way Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign directed the payment, using personal checks from the mayor rather than the campaign’s official account.

And while people close to the case say neither the mayor nor the campaign is a target of the investigation, an indictment could be embarrassing for Mr. Bloomberg, who is said to have trusted Mr. Haggerty as a key liaison to the city’s Republicans.

On Friday, in a sign that the case was taking a more serious turn, a Manhattan judge ordered the lawyer for the state’s Independence Party to testify before a grand jury after prosecutors argued that the party was not cooperating with the investigation.

Top Queens Republican - John Haggerty - Mired in Inquiry by David W. Chen - NYTimes.com

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John F. Haggerty Jr. has endeared himself to many top Republicans over the last two decades, working for a mayor named Bloomberg and a governor named Pataki, as well as an attorney general, a comptroller and an Assembly minority leader.

But if Mr. Haggerty’s résumé is deep, his public profile has been almost nonexistent. He is said to be so discreet that few people even know that he got married last year — and to a state commissioner, no less.

Soon, however, Mr. Haggerty, the veteran Queens political operative, could find his name in the worst sort of headline.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office is investigating what became of a $750,000 campaign payment from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg that went to a company Mr. Haggerty set up. And within the next week or two, according to lawyers and political officials familiar with the matter, the investigation could be coming to a conclusion, perhaps with an indictment, perhaps with a plea agreement.

The investigation, which has been going on for months, has already raised questions about the unusual way Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign directed the payment, using personal checks from the mayor rather than the campaign’s official account. And while people close to the case say neither the mayor nor the campaign is a target of the investigation, an indictment could be embarrassing for Mr. Bloomberg, who is said to have trusted Mr. Haggerty as a key liaison to the city’s Republicans.

Mr. Bloomberg paid the state Independence Party, whose endorsement he had won, $1.2 million last year. The party then paid $750,000 of that money to Special Election Operations L.L.C., a company established by Mr. Haggerty, to bankroll an Election Day operation in northern Queens, with up to 300 workers reportedly paid $500 each.

But the party and the Bloomberg campaign believe that operation fell considerably short of $750,000, and they say that if Mr. Haggerty kept any extra money, he was not entitled to do so.

“I doubt that the mayor had any idea any of this was happening,” said an administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the investigation.

Mr. Haggerty, 41, comes from a family steeped in politics, one whose members were longtime fixtures in Forest Hills Gardens. His father, John F. Haggerty, was an Albany insider and lawyer who worked for the former Senate majority leader Warren M. Anderson. Mr. Haggerty, according to those who know him and his family, intended to follow in his father’s footsteps. He attended Archbishop Molloy High School and Fordham University, a solid athlete and a devoted Catholic from his time as an altar boy.

He worked for the campaign of Ronald S. Lauder in the 1989 Republican primary for mayor against Rudolph W. Giuliani, and for a former Assembly minority leader, Clarence D. Rappleyea. In 1994, Mr. Haggerty was a candidate, coming in a distant third to Melinda R. Katz in a special election for an Assembly seat.

Later, Mr. Haggerty worked as a close aide and driver for Attorney General Dennis C. Vacco; Mr. Vacco is now Mr. Haggerty’s lawyer, and he declined to comment for this article.

Efforts to reach Mr. Haggerty through intermediaries were not successful.

Mr. Haggerty was later the head of Gov. George E. Pataki’s legislative affairs office, making just under $100,000 a year, but he also found time to help on two notable campaigns — in 2004, the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign in Nevada; and in 2006, Jeanine F. Pirro’s campaign for attorney general.

Thanks to his deep network of Republican power brokers throughout the state, Mr. Haggerty developed a reputation as an expert at the arcane business of the signatures on petitions required to qualify for a ballot — both how to get them and how to deprive his opponents of them. “He lives, breathes and dies politics,” one longtime friend said.

He also cut a very serious figure as a diehard conservative, according to Republican colleagues.

Closer to home, Mr. Haggerty was quite active, together with his brother, Bart, in a long-brewing internecine battle over control of the Queens Republican Party. Suffice it to say, the battle continues.

“I always respected his father, but I’m disappointed in the way he turned out,” said Phil Ragusa, the chairman of the Queens party and Mr. Haggerty’s rival in the borough.

Mr. Haggerty was married last summer to Noreen Healey, a commissioner of the State Liquor Authority, who had been appointed by Governor Pataki. Ms. Pirro was among those who attended.

“After he got married, people wanted to congratulate him, and he’d say he didn’t get married,” one Republican said. “He’s got this thing about keeping everything secret.”

Mr. Haggerty has been described as deferential to his political mentors. He is now working on the insurgent campaign for governor of Carl Paladino.

Mr. Haggerty has also become close to Mr. Bloomberg, who came to like and trust Mr. Haggerty. The feeling was mutual, and was evident as recently as January. Mr. Bloomberg was the host of a breakfast at Gracie Mansion welcoming Republican City Council members. And there, with Mr. Bloomberg, was Mr. Haggerty.