Transport union honcho formally demands prosecutors probe MTA boss amid contract fight

The head of a powerful transportation workers union is formally calling on prosecutors and two inspectors general to probe MTA honcho Janno Lieber for alleged conflicts of interests involving his real estate investments.

John Samuelsen, president of the Transport Workers Union, made the demand Thursday in a letter to New York State Attorney General Letitia James, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams and the inspectors general for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Samuelsen’s union is now locked in a bitter contract dispute with the MTA. On Thursday — the same day Samuelsen sent his letter — the TWU took out a full page ad in The News accusing Lieber of being an “ethically challenged fraudster.”

In his letter, Samuelsen attempts to elaborate and cites two Daily News stories that revealed Lieber holds financial stakes in properties that could potentially be impacted by MTA decision making, as well as investments in his stock portfolio — all of which Lieber has disclosed as required under state rules.

The properties — which Lieber has a financial stake with his former employer Silverstein Properties — include a plot of land on the West Side that Silverstein is eyeing as a site to develop a full-fledged casino and two high-rise buildings in the mass transit-rich World Trade Center complex.

“I urge you – if you have not already done so – to begin investigating the disturbing pattern of self-dealing and conflict-of-interest that has emerged within the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the country’s single largest transportation agency under the administration of MTA President John ‘Janno’ Lieber,” Samuelsen writes in the letter.

“Lieber, a former President of Silverstein Properties’ World Trade Center division, potentially violated anti-corruption statutes, public disclosure requirements, and agency policies governing the previously undisclosed overlap between his governmental position and his extensive personal investments,” Samuelsen continues.

The MTA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The two inspectors general also did not immediately respond, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.

The attorney general’s office confirmed receiving the letter, and an official there said it’s “reviewing” it.

In the letter, Samuelsen ticks off a laundry list of potential conflicts.

The first is Lieber’s 3% financial interest stake in a parcel in Manhattan’s West Side Silverstein is planning to develop for a casino. As The News reported, the MTA and Amtrak both have easements on the property, meaning those agencies would have to sign off on aspects of development at the site. Records show Lieber also met with lobbyists representing the Related Companies, which is proposing its own, competing casino plan atop a rail yard owned by the MTA.

“Given that Related Companies requires the rail yard decking to build its casino, it is impossible for Lieber to separate the issue of the infrastructure itself with the developer’s motivation for building the infrastructure,” Samuelsen contends in his letter.

The union leader also points to Lieber’s 3% financial stakes in 3 World Trade Center and 4 World Trade Center, both steps away from the WTC Cortlandt subway station that was destroyed during 9/11. For years, during Lieber’s tenure at Silverstein, reconstruction of the station hit snags and was delayed. In 2017, after Lieber had begun working for the MTA, he said he made the work “a priority,” following up on the agency’s long-standing plan to prioritize upgrades to the station.

Samuelsen claims in his letter that Lieber’s involvement in the project flies in the face of his assertion that he’s recused himself from work that might benefit Silverstein. The MTA would need release Lieber’s recusal documents to The News.

The letter goes on to reference “other unreported conflicts.” According to Samuelsen, they include four companies “that have either recently received or attempted to secure MTA contracts [and] have performed work on the parcels co-owned by Lieber.” Those companies are Langan Engineering, Gensler Architecture, the Syska Hennessy engineering firm and the WSP engineering firm.

“Given the [MTA’s] reputation for cost overruns, it is not difficult to imagine a contractor submitting a low bid for work on one private sector job in the hopes of influencing the selection process for more lucrative MTA work,” Samuelsen notes.

He also asks that prosecutors probe Lieber’s stock holdings and other financial investments, citing the possibility of “insider trading based on knowledge of procurement and budget.”

Samuelsen specifically points to financial disclosure forms that show Lieber holds “five- and six-figure investments in publicly traded companies with MTA business, including Express Scripts, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase.”