Folks, I don't know if this is the Big Kahuna - meaning the long-sought link to how 2nd Ward City Councilwoman Beth Mason is able to funnel so much money to political campaigns, candidates, political operatives (rhymes with 'Bane Lajardi')- but whatever it is, it smells real bad.
What's GA talking about?
Beth Mason's resume. A fictitious entry. A sham company.
I'm talking about the last place she claims to have worked: Newton Lao Leonard & Locke NY, NY from 1993-2005 as Founder, President.
Well, folks. GA did some digging with the help of a friend I call One Eye. For no special reason. Except he's got a glass eye.
Wait until you see what that one-eyed bastard dug up.
Here's what Beth Mason says about her time at Newton Lao Leonard & Locke; her impressive clientele and wide-ranging responsibilities as Founder/President from 1993-2005.
So what's wrong with that?
The company was registered with the State of New Jersey on April 16, 2010:
How did Mason found a company in 1993 when it didn't exist until 2010?
There's more.
Mason registered her LLC's location at 10 Stuyvesant Avenue, Lyndhurst New Jersey. Here it is. But her company, Newton, Lao, Leonard & Locke is not on the tenant list. (To the left of the satellite photo)
Getting the picture?
Mason's resume entry AND her company are a fabrication. Or rather, they exist... on paper. So all of that executive and managerial experience exists... on paper.
Now for that clever son-of-a-bitch One Eye's pointed commentary:
What I can say so far about Newton Lao Leonard & Locke. She claims to have founded the company and worked there from 1993 – 2005. She is listed as the registered agent as of April, 2011 and the office allegedly is located at 10 Stuyvesant Avenue, Lyndhurst, NJ, which is a generic office building with accountants and attorneys as tenants. No listing of the company at that address per Google. So it has to be that her accountant or atty is located there.
There is no record of any person named Newton, Lao, Leonard or Locke affiliated with the company.
It has all the earmarks of someone's "shell" or "front" company, i.e. a business in name only that is used to funnel expenses and make payments, receive payments that they don’t want associated with their name directly.
The only phone number or address for the company in the white and yellow pages is her home address on Hudson Street. The listed number is disconnected, and it is a 212 area code- 212-645-2570.
And there is NO RECORD of the entity ever having been formed in NY, according to a search of the NYS Sec of State.
Interesting question is if she stopped working there in 2005, why, six years later is she keeping the shell open for business? Ask what the company does? Who are the employees? What is the revenue?
Ask those questions and she will get very uncomfortable.
So she has basically lied about her resume from 1993 to 2005. She has no real executive or managerial experience, except cratering two separate business entities and running a sham company for the past 15 years.
A ghost – or a shadow – Only the Shadow Knows.
Damn, that guy can do more with one eyeball than I can do with both of mine. Plus contact lenses.
But more questions remain about Beth Mason's shadowy LLC. Some for the IRS. Has she ever claimed income or a tax deduction for this entity? If she files jointly with her husband, Ricky, what did he know and when did he know it? What 'trails' are available to see the flow of money into and out of this mysterious LLC, to whom and when?
As for Newton, Lao, Leonard & Locke, the only traces you'll find of it online are address listings. Nothing else. Nothing with the Lyndhurst address. Just one listing for 720 Monroe Street (last updated in 2008):
And another for 921 Hudson Street, Mason's home.
So why does GA care?
I didn't. Until Wednesday's hit job on Tom Greaney. If she's talking about where Tom was a decade and a half ago, then it's fair to ask what she's been up to these past 15 years.
Now we know. The Founder and President of a company that didn't exist until last year.
So what do you think of my friend, One Eye? He thinks he's the cat's pajamas, and maybe he is. Because he's got more to say about Mason's resume.
Do we care?
(Update, 11:45am)
This is funny, folks!Just got a call from someone who worked out of Mason's 720 Monroe St. office in 2003 on a political campaign.... this person described the office down to bright pink walls and black furniture. And that "nothing was going on there".
But here's the funny bit. One Eye brought up the question of where the names came from in her company's name, and who they were: Newton, Lao, Leonard &Locke.
GA's got 3 out of 4. Ready?
Lao- that's the one I don't have. Anyone?Newton = Sir Isaac NewtonLeonard=Leonard Nimoy (Spock on original Star Trek)Locke=John Locke
(Updated 4/29/11, noon)
Got the 4th name! Received a call earlier today, and here it is:Lao=Lao Tzu
We care. Dish already!
ReplyDeleteI'll pass that on, Red!
ReplyDeleteThis is good stuff. Keep using One-Eye because at least he or she has something new to share, unlike Uvula the "insider" who really has given us insight to nothing that anyone who follows Hoboken politics does not already know.
ReplyDeleteBoy, do we care! The whole shell company structure to take in and pay out money makes perfect sense.
ReplyDeleteThis is brilliant, GA. I'm so glad that Beth Mason may finally get a taste of her own medicine. She's a liar, a cheat and a hypocrite and the residents of the 2nd Ward need to know these things.
What Beth and Lane did to Tom Greaney is unconscionable. Unfortunately Tom, being a public figure engaged in a political contest, cannot sue these two creeps for the intentional tort of invasion of privacy. Too bad. Hopefully, your revelations will go a long way to shutting the Mason-Bajardi Show down for good.
Every aspect of her "resume" should be examined, including whether she really was student body president at VSU.
ReplyDeleteAnother search ought to reveal an inordinate amount of mechanics liens and the like for the Mason's Hoboken and Catskill residences as they NEVER pay people in full.
Beth can pretend to be philanthropical when it suits her and Ricky can daven till he needs a dramamine, but God knows what's in their souls - as we all do.
Please continue to dish!
Seriously? They never pay people in full and they are complaining about Tom? At least he didn't have the money to pay someone back in full ONE TIME in his life. Do the Mason's actually make a practice of not paying people consistently despite the fact that they are filthy rich? That is disgusting if it is actually true.
ReplyDeleteThe point is not how Beth acted (badly and falsely) in her corporate life. The point is her absurd no votes, alliances with Russo and Hoboken's dark side and her attempt to buy elections is why she does not deserve to be reelected. We don't need to stoop to Mason411's character assassination level. Judge Beth by her miserable record and vote Tom Greaney.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't character assassination.
ReplyDeleteThis is unembellished truth about Mason's duplicity, dishonesty, hypocrisy. Something we all value in our elected officials. Qualities that have everything to do with how she governs. Which you've pointed out she does miserably. Which is information voters should know. Which is information she has caused to be disclosed by digging into her opponent's old financial records.
ss1959, think for a moment what she's done to Tom.
He steps up to serve our community in a part-time capacity- he has a real full-time job- and she publishes this smear which will now show up on every Google search to every potential employer going forward.
I call this transparency- a purported Mason value- not character assassination.
I figured out what Lao stands for other than some Chinese fellah.
ReplyDeleteIt stands for Laughing Ass Off at the notion that Beth Mason has any real Fortune 500 experience over the last 15 years.
Tom Greaney's bankruptcy was a long long time ago and he is not the only American to ever have financial difficulty and recover.
Perry Klaussen is over 40 years old and still needs to have a roomate. He shouldn't be lecturing anyone on financial success with his pathetic extortionistic and sponsorship business model that he has over at Hoboken 411. He is likely a Beth Mason electoral defeat from being in the poor house himself. When was the last time anyone saw him with new clothes? He wears that same stupid striped cheap assed leather coat that doesn't even fit his fat self anymore. At least he appears to be getting plenty of food.
RG, I thought you were going to say that Lao stands for Lao-Zee (say it fast).
ReplyDeleteHas the Bard got any verse for us on this?
Another tenant at 10 Stuyvesant in Lyndhurst is "The Cratos Group", employer of noneother than one of Mason's political sidekicks, Adam Alonso where he claims to be an "advisor to high-net worth individuals, young entrepreneurs/professionals, corporations, trade associations, non-profit organizations, and public officials."
ReplyDeleteApparently, he also provides protective cover for his client's shell-games.
Consider yourself a contributer, Oracle.
ReplyDeleteAlonso is a Partner of The Cratos Group. Beth hired them last April 2010- the same time her LLC was registered... at Cratos' address. Alonso also contributed a nice chunk of change- $875 to Occhipinti's campaign.
http://www.hobokenhorse.com/2011_02_11_archive.html
Charming. Is this how money gets routed to pay her vast legion of helpers: sign-stealers (Caliccio said he works for Mason & Occhipinti), H411 and the easel-weasel?
We all know Beth is a sham and she has run companies into the ground. The point is she supported people earning over $100,000 staying in CT. She votes to keep Corner Cars illegal. She constantly lies about the budget surplus. She supports the patronage school team. She tries to violate people's 1st Amendment rights. She has an alliance with the Russo's. She thinks the council is the executive branch. She asked for oversight over the waterfront and then punted when the good pier, Pier A was found to be corrupted. She tries to buy elections. I could go on and on. She has made POG a sham. She has a miserable track record that we should focus on, not her failed biz career.
ReplyDeleteSs1959, these are new revelations and the assumption that they will hijack the campaign is wrong-- all those points you mentioned are substantive campaign issues that go right to Mason's judgment.
ReplyDeleteToday's topic: fabricating one's resume, operating a shell company to funnel money to candidates, campaigns and hired guns speak to Mason's character.
Character and judgment inform our decision as voters. And her record speaks for itself.
The point here is not her 'failed biz career'. And no one is ditching her record.
You've only listed her positive qualities!
ReplyDeleteFailure in one's professinal career is not the issue and there is no shame in not succeeding in and of itself; lying about it - or rather fabricating a professional career - is.
By entering into public life, Mason's professional and academic experience are germane to her character and qualifications as a candidate. Those of us who've been paying attention don't need any additional proof of her delusional, craven political ambitions and how unqualified she is.
Imagine a scenario wherein someone with a fictitious resume, just like Beth's, had to appear before her and the Council of No for approval to the zoning or planning boards.
Next step - notify her bank, as this is a major red flag for them.
ReplyDeleteI can't confirm this, but I heard a rumor that Newton, Lao, Leonard and Locke were the names of four pet lemmings that they kept in a habitat at the Hudson Street house back in the late 80's.
ReplyDelete