{"id":920,"date":"2009-07-24T08:28:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-24T12:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2009\/07\/24\/scozzafavas-brother-problem\/"},"modified":"2009-07-24T08:28:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-24T12:28:00","slug":"scozzafavas-brother-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2009\/07\/24\/scozzafavas-brother-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Scozzafava&#8217;s brother problem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.redstate.com\/erick\/2009\/07\/17\/in-ny-23-is-dede-scozzafava-the-best-we-can-do\/\">a lot of attention<\/a> already to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/blogs\/scorecard\/0709\/Scozzafava_under_fire.html?showall\">Dede Scozzafava&#8217;s role<\/a> in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.watertowndailytimes.com\/article\/20090722\/NEWS02\/307229951\">venture capital firm<\/a>, Seaway Valley Capital Corp., owned by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.watertowndailytimes.com\/article\/20090723\/NEWS03\/307239945\">her brother, Thomas Scozzafava<\/a>.  The company owes almost $200,000 in back taxes and is tied up in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.watertowndailytimes.com\/article\/20090716\/NEWS05\/307169944\">two civil lawsuits<\/a>.  Democrats and some Republicans have been working to make her ties to the firm a campaign issue.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is nothing nefarious here,&#8221; Dede Scozzafava told me yesterday, &#8220;the public company [Seaway Valley Capital Corp.] I have nothing to do with.&#8221;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.northcountrypublicradio.org\/news.php#14033\">  You can listen to Dede Scozzafava explain some of this in this audio clip from our interview yesterday.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Based on that conversation, and an e-mail I received from Thomas, here&#8217;s what we know:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In 2003, Dede and Thomas Scozzafava formed Seaway Capital Partners, or &#8220;SC Partners, Inc. LLC&#8221;, as an investment firm to create the North Country retail chain, Wise Buys.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.northcountrypublicradio.org\/news\/story\/2673\/former-ames-ceo-joins-wise-buys-team\">This happened shortly after Ames department stores closed<\/a>, and local residents were clamoring for more retail options.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.northcountrypublicradio.org\/news\/story\/1905\/filling-the-post-ames-void\">(There was lots of clamoring for underwear, specifically.)<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Dede Scozzafava says she was, and still is, the vice-president and COO of &#8220;SC Partners&#8221;.  That&#8217;s why she includes it in her <a href=\"http:\/\/assembly.state.ny.us\/mem\/?ad=122&amp;sh=bio\">official biography<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_SPuGALF0mHE\/Sln-QLb5PgI\/AAAAAAAABHA\/ewDagIuY2Vs\/s1600-h\/Scozzafava+Letter+3.jpg\">on her resume to Republican party leaders<\/a>.  Scozzafava says another brother, Fred, owns a 51% share of the company and is the president.  She says her brother, Thomas, is not currently a shareholder or investor in the company.<\/li>\n<li>Dede Scozzafava was a board member and corporate secretary of Wise Buys until March 2007.<\/li>\n<li>In October 2007, Seaway Valley Capital Corporation, with Thomas Scozzafava as CEO, acquired Wise Buys.  Investors in &#8220;SC Partners&#8221;\/Wise Buys, including Dede Scozzafava, were given shares in Seaway Valley.  Other than this &#8220;passive investor&#8221; status, Dede Scozzafava says she has no connection to Seaway Valley.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:100%\"><span style=\"font-family:georgia\">In November 2007, Seaway Valley acquired Hacketts, the Ogdensburg-based retail chain that&#8217;s been around since the 1830s.  Hacketts stores have been closing in Watertown, Pulaski, Massena, Canton, and Gouverneur (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wdt.net\/article\/20090724\/NEWS05\/307249975\">new reports<\/a> say Massena and Gouverneur will remain open).  Thomas Scozzafava wrote me that Hacketts was &#8220;distressed&#8221;, with losses of $400,000, when he bought it.  <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.northcountrypublicradio.org\/blogs\/ballotbox\/2009\/03\/credit-crunch-threatens-north-country.html\">Hacketts has been struggling to pay back a $5 million loan.<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span><span class=\"059400112-23072009\">In June 2008, Seaway Valley acquired North Country Hospitality, which included Sackets  Harbor Brewing Company, Good Fello&#8217;s and Alteri Bakery<\/span><\/span>, more distressed companies.  Together these businesses owed $192,000 in state and federal taxes. Thomas Scozzafava says <a href=\"http:\/\/www.watertowndailytimes.com\/article\/20090723\/NEWS03\/307239945\">he did not know<\/a> about the tax liens when he bought NCH.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So in summary, candidate Scozzafava owns some shares in brother Scozzafava&#8217;s Seaway Valley Capital Corp., but she&#8217;s not a director, manager, employee, or officer of the company.<\/p>\n<p>Will Scozzafava still face tough questions in the eventual 23rd congressional district campaign?  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffersondemocrat.org\/2009\/07\/scozzafava-on-scozzafava-its-only-been.html\">Absolutely.<\/a>  Will her brother&#8217;s financial dealings affect her political aspirations?   That&#8217;s up to voters.<\/p>\n<p>For the record, I asked Scozzafava if she thought her brother should have to pay back those taxes immediately.  She said: &#8220;I think he&#8217;s trying to turn the companies around and do that.  But it&#8217;s a business transaction and you should ask him about it.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s been a lot of attention already to Dede Scozzafava&#8217;s role in the venture capital [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[874],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}