Town of Tonawanda buying office building from indicted political donor

TOWN OF TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WIVB) – News 4 was first to report that the City of Buffalo used taxpayer money to hire a politically-connected consultant who is under federal indictment.
Once we learned of the revelation, that consultant resigned from the job.

And now, a local town is using your money to buy property from this same political donor.

The property is located at 2060 Sheridan Drive. This building is owned by Hormoz Mansouri, the president of E.I. Team who is under federal indictment. The Town of Tonawanda is buying this property from Mansouri.

Two weeks ago, News 4 first reported that Hormoz Mansouri received a lucrative $166,000 contract from the City of Buffalo to work on two park projects, even though he’s been under federal indictment, accused of stealing more than $3 million in COVID-19 relief funding.

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown says the city didn’t know Mansouri was charged and called the revelation “embarrassing” and pledged to make reforms in the city’s hiring process.

Mansouri resigned from those park projects.

News 4 has now learned that the Town of Tonawanda is using over one million dollars in taxpayer money to buy Mansouri’s office building in the town in order to consolidate town services such as engineering and planning departments, which are located in different areas of the town.

“He has a property that’s up for sale, we have an interest in doing something that’s better for our community. We hesitated when all this stuff was coming up about do we want to enter into a transaction, that’s why we reached out to U.S. Attorney, you know, can we do it,” Town of Tonawanda Supervisor Joe Emminger said, “We need space, we’re not functional, we have buildings spread all over the town and we need to make ourselves more functional.”

QUESTION: Why buy a building from someone who is facing a 40-count indictment in federal court?

“It’s a real estate transaction, we’re not doing business with him, it’s a real estate transfer,” Emminger said.

QUESTION: Some people might have questions about how you’re going to put over a million dollars in his pocket when federal prosecutors say that he broke the law?

“Buying a property from him is not illegal,” Emminger said.

Emminger goes on to say that the town has exhausted all other possibilities of buying another location that fits their needs. The town also got assurances from the U.S. Attorney’s Office that there’s nothing prohibiting the town from buying Mansouri’s building.

Emminger says the town had 2060 Sheridan Drive appraised in 2022 for a million dollars. Mansouri will get a little more than that in this deal which is expected to close in May.

Meanwhile, Hormoz Mansouri is scheduled to go on trial this summer. He’s facing a 40-count indictment on charges such as money laundering and wire fraud. If convicted, Mansouri could face a maximum of 30 years in prison. News 4 reached out to him again Monday and have not heard back.

Jeff Preval is an award-winning anchor and reporter who joined the News 4 team in December 2021. See more of his work here.

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