Indicted political donor rejects plea deal with federal prosecutors

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Hormoz Mansouri, the indicted political donor who once hired by the City of Buffalo has rejected a plea deal in the federal case against him.

According to federal prosecutors, Mansouri was offered a plea deal of 33-41 months of incarceration. Mansouri, while in federal court Wednesday with his attorneys, said he rejected that offer. Under the proposed terms of the deal, Mansouri would agree to plea guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud.

The fraud case against Mansouri will now head to trial in September. Prosecutors say Mansouri, if found guilty, could receive between 98 and 121 months of prison time.

Three years ago, Mansouri was charged by the feds with wire fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud and money laundering. He's accused of lying on loan applications, inflating payroll expenses to get more than $3.5 million dollars in COVID-19 relief funds and routinely transferring money back and forth through numerous bank accounts, to conceal the alleged scheme. Prosecutors say Mansouri brazenly paid more than half a million dollars to a casino using COVID funds. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the case against Mansouri resulted in the seizure of nearly $2 million.

But still, after a selection process, Mansouri and his firm were hired by the city last summer to be the consultant on the redevelopment of Shoshone and Trinidad parks. Once WIVB started asking questions about the hire, Mansouri and his company resigned from the park projects.

"There's no question that it is embarrassing, but again as I mentioned, the selection committee looked at the federal list of companies that are debarred, companies that are not allowed to bid on federal contracts and this company did not appear on that list," said Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown.

Instead, during the selection process, the EI Team, with Mansouri as its president pitched itself as a company with "an exceptional track record."

Public documents show Department of Public Works Commissioner Nate Marton signing off on both the 'Notice to Proceed' and the contract with Mansouri. Documents on the city's scoring criteria for consultants, show the city's principal engineer Steve Buccilli and Deputy Commissioner for Parks and Recreation Andy Rabb giving glowing scores to the EI Team on the Shoshone and Trinidad park projects. Emails WIVB has received showing discussions between city officials and the EI Team make no mention of any legal issues Mansouri or his companies are facing.

"We did not have that information in front of us and kind of readily, readily available so we moved forward with the evaluation of the EI Team based on what we had in front of us," Marton said.

Shoshone Park is in the University District, which city council member Rasheed Wyatt represents.

"People who heard the story they were just kind of shocked and I was shocked," Wyatt said.

Since Mansouri's resignation, the city has been in search of two new consultants. Even with no lead consultant, Wyatt said the redevelopment of Shoshone Park remains on track.

"A lot of the heavy lifting was done already," Wyatt said. "That was the good news, there are still some other pieces that need to be worked on, but for the most part it's still moving forward."

The City of Buffalo has hired two new companies to replace the EI Team on the park projects, nearly four months since their resignation. GPI will work on the Trinidad Park project, while Wendel Engineering will work on the project for Shoshone Park.

"We know that it's not gone as smoothly as we had liked," Wyatt said. "So again, I hope that we're not going to have any more issues going forward."

The city's Department of Public Works said construction on both park projects is expected next year.

In terms of reforms moving forward, the city's Department of Public Works said it plans on adding a questionnaire for consultants in the city's bidding process. According to campaign finance records, Mansouri and LLCs named in the federal indictment have given Brown about $10,000 over the years. However, Brown said in March this has nothing to do with the contract Mansouri received.