The federal government is asking questions about how the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration handles office leasing after an IBJ investigation raised questions about potential conflicts of interest.
A regional program manager with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services asked in a July 14 letter for information on whether the FSSA followed state and federal rules as it leased office space across Indiana.
The federal agency also wants to know whether Venture Cos. owner John M. Bales of Indianapolis has any ownership interest in properties being leased through his contract for services with FSSA or subrecipients under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, program.
"If so, how does that ownership relationship comport with the state's standards of conduct regarding real or apparent conflicts of interest?" wrote the manager, Steven Krasner.
Bales, a politically connected real estate broker who represents several state agencies in lease deals, orchestrated deals to put the company that runs Indiana’s welfare-to-work program into at least two buildings he owns in Indianapolis, IBJ found. The parents of a Bales partner at Venture own a third building, in Kokomo, that landed the same tenant.
The rare federal inquiry is the first time the FSSA has received questions about its leasing practices, said spokesman Marcus Barlow.
Barlow said the "current political environment creates a situation where everything is under higher scrutiny, which we invite.”
“We’re putting together a response to show them that what we’ve done is well within established leasing practices,” Barlow said. “The prices that we paid were actually better than market rates.”
Indiana House Speaker Pat Bauer requested in June that the Department of Health and Human Services investigate real estate leases Bales brokered with state agencies.
Bauer, D-South Bend, sent a formal request letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius with a copy of IBJ’s April 24 article, headlined “Politically connected broker’s deals raise conflict questions.”
Bauer cited the IBJ article as the impetus for his request.
Bales is a friend and business partner of Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, the subject of a series of IBJ investigative articles over the past several months.
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The whole Brizzi mess stinks. People like Bob Grand belong behind bars as bad as Brizzi does.
Bob Grand is knee deep in this one, siding behind and helping Brizzi as quietly as he can.
What a joke.
Bob Grand should be fired from Barnes and Thornburg and Brizzi should go to jail.
Yeah, Barlow is full of crap. The fact that the STATE have not adequately investigated the dubious arrangements as CLEARLY reported by the IBJ that Bales and his former or current partners Wendy and Rankin had relatives owning interests in buildings and further Bales or a colleague provides inside information to Messrs. Brizzi and Page so they can go and get under contract the LBABS Elkhart Property and once the Lease is in the "BAG" Brizzi(undisclosed principal) and Page proceed and close on the land and building (no risk).
Did Bales make a commission on the building sale to LBABS unnecessarily driving up the states lease cost and lining his pocket? Then made his commission on the lease to his buddies. What other properties were looked at for that location. The state has not come clean and disclosed crap to the taxpayers...
Who are they protecting?
Did RFP's go out?
Neither Page and Brizzi are from Elkhart so they were told what to purchase? By whom?
Also note Page has a $1,350,000 personal judgement entered against him from First Internet Bank according to the IBJ and was having many developments either sued or defaulting on loans... I'll bet the LBABS mortgage from Huntington COULD only be APPROVED "with" a state lease in hand....based on what has transpired with all Pages failed real estate dealings which Wachovia, CNL Bank, First Internet Bank, JPM Chase, Fifth Third Bank...
Where are the pics of the hotties on the yacht?!