FBI investigating spending of federal COVID relief money in West Haven. Mayor Nancy Rossi acknowledges “potentially fraudulent” expenditures.
The FBI is looking into the questionable spending of COVID relief money in West Haven, where Mayor Nancy R. Rossi also called Friday for an investigation after discovering what she called a number of large and apparently irregular expenditures from about $1.2 million in federal funds.
“Over the last two weeks, I have personally reviewed many of West Haven’s federal CARES Act expenditures,” she said in a statement broadcast over the internet. “I have come across several large expenditures that have caused he great concern. Some of the expenditures appear improper and may be potentially fraudulent.”
During an interview after reading the statement from her desk at City Hall, Rossi would not elaborate on the nature of the expenditures or why she found troubling about them. She said she had been told not to discuss the matter because it is being investigated, but declined to say who issued the instructions.
The Courant has learned, however, that the FBI is looking into the city’s expenditure of federal COVID relief money and agents were at City Hall Thursday.
An FBI spokesman declined to comment. Rossi said she shared her concern with West Haven’s outside accountants, Clifton Larson Allen, “which after its review agreed that these transactions are suspicious and need further investigation.”
The Courant has learned that the auditors were provided with, among other things, at least one paid invoice submitted by the Compass Investment Group, a consulting firm in which State Rep Michael A. DiMassa is a principal. An invoice obtained by The Courant shows Compass billed the city health department $15,690 on September 20 for, among other things, a service called Support Staff COVID Database.
DiMassa also is the administrative assistant to the West Haven City Council and is among a handful of city officials who received what others in local politics have described as substantial overtime payments for work they did during the pandemic. Rossi said four city employees who report to her — her executive assistant, the public works director, city attorney and personnel director — received overtime payments
Rossi said DiMassa does not report to her and she is not aware what, if anything he received. The New Haven Register reported early last month that DiMassi said he had collected about $14,000 above his normal salary over the course of the pandemic.
DiMassa did not respond to calls Friday.
How West Haven’s COVID relief money was spent and who got it was a hot issue in the primary election campaign remains so going into the November election.
The Courant filed a public records request to West Haven in August for an accounting of how it disbursed what is known as CARES Act money, federal subsidies distributed to all Connecticut cities and towns to help cover unexpected costs of the pandemic. The city has not provided the records.
West Haven applied for and received $1,150,257 for the second half of 2021, from July 1 to Dec. 30. It has until the end of the year spend the money and had to certify in advance that the money would be spent in accordance with the federal CARES Act guidelines.
Rossi’s political opponents have tried to weaponize her spending decisions. She said Friday she was shocked to find potential irregularities.
“After reviewing the expenditures, I suspect that some of these funds may have been diverted and not used for the purpose for which they were intended, a though that sickens me,” she said in her Internet statement. “I assure all of our residents that if the investigation proves any wrongdoing and fraudulent activity I will demand that anyone involved be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
