Who signed off on Buffalo hiring a local political donor accused of federal crimes?

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - WIVB News 4 is learning more about how and why the City of Buffalo hired a local political donor who has been charged with federal crimes such as money laundering and wire fraud. It's a story we first told you about and have been staying on top of for months.

Back in March, WIVB was first to report how the City of Buffalo hired Hormoz Mansouri, an indicted political donor. He and his firm were awarded a six-figure contract to be the consultant on two city park projects. The revelation led to Mansouri's resignation and Mayor Byron Brown calling the situation "embarrassing."

WIVB filed a public records request to find out how and why the hire was made.

New documents obtained by WIVB show who signed off on the contract to award Mansouri and his firm the EI Team a $166,000 contract to work on the two park projects. The documents also show who gave Mansouri's company high scores in an evaluation process, even though he's facing a 40-count federal indictment.

"Hormoz Mansouri from EI Team, we are the architect and engineer of record for the master plan," Mansouri said in March during a meeting with residents on the Shoshone Park project.

Three years ago, Mansouri was charged by the feds with wire fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud & 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. Federal 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.

WIVB (in March): Would you say that this is embarrassing that the city hired a contractor/consultant who was under federal indictment?

BROWN: 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."

Instead, during the selection process, the EI Team 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 News 4 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 now 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. Federal prosecutors said Mansouri faces a maximum of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine. He's scheduled to go on trial this fall.

According to campaign finance records, Mansouri and LLCs named in the federal indictment have given Brown about $10,000 over the years. But Brown said in March this has nothing to do with the contract Mansouri received.