S o C V th ΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ W ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ E 10 0 ΑΠΟ ΤΟ 1915 The National Herald anniversa ry N www.thenationalherald.com A weekly Greek-AmeriCAn PubliCAtion 1915-2015 VOL. 18, ISSUE 917 May 9-15 , 2015 c v $1.50 Savior of Dean Skelos & Son Arrested on Federal Corruption1 Charges Twinkies Amid Corruption and Bribery Probe, Senate On Cover Majority Leader Maintains He is Innocent TNH Staff who, at one point, used a dispos - able phone in an unsuccessful ef - Of Forbes NEW YORK – NY State Senate fort to avoid government surveil - Majority Leader Dean Skelos, lance," according to the Times. 67, and his son, Adam B. Skelos, "In one taped conversation," Dean Metropoulos’ 32, turned themselves on May it was reported, "Adam Skelos 4, on federal corruption charges acknowledged that he got the Success Rebuilding at the Federal Bureau of Investi - job with AbTech even though he gation’s New York office in “literally knew nothing about Household Brands Lower Manhattan, where they water or, you know, any of that were arrested. stuff.” TNH Staff The charges against them Federal authorities have been were detailed by U.S. Attorney seeking to determine, the Times He’s made a career – and for - Preet Bharara, who on Jan. 22 reported, whether Senator Ske - tune – out of saving and bring - arrested then-Assembly Speaker los exerted any influence in mat - ing back from the dead some of Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, on ters involving AbTech, some of America’s most beloved brands corruption charges, wrote the the people have said. Investiga - – like Bumble Bee Tuna, Chef Rochester Democrat & Chroni - tors have also been reviewing Boyardee and Pabst Blue Ribbon cle. whether AbTech’s hiring of the beer. A six-count criminal com - younger Skelos was part of a Now Connecticut billionaire plaint filed in United States Dis - scheme in which the senator C. Dean Metropoulos has turned trict Court in Manhattan in - would in exchange take official the trick again with Twinkies, cludes charges of “conspiracy, action to benefit AbTech or an - the sugar-packed finger-sized extortion under the color of of - other company, Glenwood Man - cream-filled yellow snack cake ficial right, honest services wire agement, a politically influential said to have so many preserva - fraud and bribe solicitation. The real estate developer that has tives it survived to feed the hun - accusations stem from a federal had ties to AbTech. gry in the cult movie Zom - investigation focused on the The Times further reported bieland. younger man’s business deal - on May 6 that Skelos “was a fea - Along with Apollo Global se - ings...including payments to tured guest at a Sept. 19, 2012, nior partner Andy Jhawar, Adam Skelos by an Arizona en - luncheon of the Real Estate Metropoulos has turned around vironmental company, AbTech Board of New York…He was the once renowed Hostess Industries," according to the there to talk to 30 executives brand, famous for those pack - New York Times. about the coming election. At aged cupcakes and snowballs in AP Photo/CrAiG ruttle Skelos' arrest was another one point, Mr. Skelos spoke pri - supermarkets and convenience New York Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son Adam leave federal court in New blow to the political establish - vately to Charles C. Dorego, an stores, and are going to get even York, Monday, May 4, 2015, after arraignment on charges including extortion and soliciting ment in Albany. Skelos, first richer from it. bribes amid a federal investigation into the awarding of a $12 million contract. elected majority leader in 2008, Continued on page 5 How did they do it? With the is part of the so-called "three same methodology that resur - men in a room" – the Assembly rected other companies, turning speaker, Senate leader and gov - business models on their head ernor who work on the budget and reversing decline with in - Running on Empty, Pressure Grows and legislation behind closed Strong in the novation, efficiency, machinery doors. and sleekness. The senator and his son have A cover piece for Forbes mag - With state coffers running tral Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) which let it sell Treasury bills. The last been a focal point of a federal Faith: Life azine described the venture dry, Greek officials conducted a is holding back a 7.2- billion time an issue was let, only probe that looked into numerous skills. Hostess, headquartered in whirlwind series of meetings euro installment until he does. Greek banks - already teetering matters, the Times reported, in - Kansas, had deteriorated even across Europe hoping to get po - Tsipras won the Jan. 25 snap by a run on deposits - bought cluding the son's business deal - and Acts of as its name recognition did not. litical backing for debt relief, elections on the back of his them because investors have ings. The company name – bannered and asked the European Central promise not to negotiate with been scared off by the prospect "In recent months, federal au - by the ubiquitous Twinkie – was Bank to raise the ceiling on the troika – he is – and to re - of a default and the country be - thorities gained the cooperation Fr. Morgan a goldmine almost by itself, but Treasury bills that can be sold – verse the big pay cuts, tax hikes, ing forced out of the Eurozone of two senior executives from the way it operated wasn’t. essentially to Greek banks. slashed pensions and worker fir - and unable to repay anybody. businesses that had directed or By Steve Frangos It went under in 2012. The coalition government led ings implemented by two previ - THE HEAT IS ON paid about $220,000 in pay - TNH Staff Writer There’s where Metropoulos by Prime Minister and Radical ous governments dominated by The IMF is squeezing hard. ments to Adam Skelos, the com - came in, with his partner. They Left SYRIZA leader Alexis the New Democracy Conserva - The Financial Times said that plaint said. One was an executive paid $410 billion for the cakes Tsipras is refusing to impose tives and the almost-defunct PA - the agency, which is to put up at a prominent Long Island real CHICAGO- I first learned of Fa - company, put in another $250 more austerity reforms de - SOK Socialists. half of the 7.2- billion euro in - estate firm; the other, who ther Raphael Morgan in quite a to create a state-of-the-art as - manded by the troika of the Eu - Key to Greece's immediate stallment, warned that Greece worked at AbTech, secretly roundabout manner. His fasci - sembly line and business that ropean Union-International survival, government officials recorded conversations, includ - nating personal journey and the requires only 500 people in one Monetary Fund-European Cen - said, is convincing the ECB to Continued on page 11 ing some with Adam Skelos — legacy he has left to Eastern Or - location, replacing 14 that had thodoxy across the planet is sin - 9,000 workers. gular, to say the least. This is no It produces a million simple tale. So, I will just begin Twinkies a day, 400 million a with my discovery of this totally year, or 80 percent of the com - Lincoln Read unique individual and then trace pany’s output, so irresistible are it all back to what has been re - the cakes even in the age of or - ported on Morgan’s life and ganic, low-fat, no-fat, no-sugar, Poem to Civ. works. no-salt, no-preservatives and, It was while in graduate some would argue, no-taste school that I kept hearing about snacks. There was no room any - War Troops the book, East African Rebels: more for Ding Dongs, Ho-Ho’s A Study of Some Independent and Zingers. Churches, by Frederick Burke - The company had a 150-year About Botsaris wood Welbourn (London: SCM history and went under after Press, 1961) from my Africanist two bankruptcies and five CEO’s colleagues. Given my interest in couldn’t save it, ending after a By Constantinos E. Scaros all things Greek, I was told re - workers strike was the last peatedly about the “rebels” in straw. Last month was the 150th question. These individuals “The brand awareness was anniversary of the assassination were the leaders and members unbelievable,” Jhawar told of Abraham Lincoln, a virtually of three independent churches unanimous choice as one of among the Buganda people of Continued on page 6 America’s greatest presidents, Uganda and a number of the and in many historians’ eyes at Kikuyu in Kenya. Having broken the very top of the list. from the Anglican Church, With the benefit of a century Reuben Spartas Mukasa (1899- and a half of hindsight, an 1982), a Muganda and a num - A Heartfelt overview of Lincoln’s place in ber of his friends and followers history often falls into this introduced the African Ortho - neatly-arranged “happily-ever- dox Church (AOC) into Tribute to after” sequence: Elected as the Buganda in 1932. first Republican president, a Founded in the United States party that was formed for the in 1921, the African Orthodox Iakovos purpose of abolishing slavery in Church was and remains a pri - the United States, Lincoln’s oc - AP Photo/Petros GiAnnAkouris marily African-American de - cupancy of the White House im - The On-Again, Off-Again, Golden Dawn Trial nomination. Today, it is said to By Constantine S. Sirigos mediately caused numerous have approximately 15 parishes TNH Staff Writer Southern states to secede, form - A police officer looks on during a trial of dozens of members and volunteers of the far-right and 5,000 members, down sig - ing the Confederate States of Golden Dawn Party, at Korydallos, near Athens, Thursday, May 7.