[BN] Politics Now 📩: Mansouri contract raises eyebrows in political world

Hormoz Mansouri is back in the news with the surprising revelation by my colleague Mark Sommer that the political mega-donor got a $175,000 city contract that is funded by federal dollars. 

The problem for Mansouri (and for Mayor Byron Brown, who denied knowledge about this late last week) is that his engineering firm received the contract at the same time he is under federal indictment and accused of fraudulently obtaining $3.4 million in pandemic assistance from the federal government.

The feds say Mansouri tried to pull off a scheme in which he created phony companies with no real employees, applied for more than $3 million in PPP funding that “either inflated or completely fabricated the average monthly payroll and six of the eight entities had no actual employees or payroll expenses at all.” Mansouri has pleaded not guilty, and the case is still pending in court. 

What makes the reported crimes especially brazen is that, according to court papers, Mansouri used the funds to pay off a $600,000 casino debt and to launch a campaign finance account to the tune of $200,000 for Erie County comptroller. Imagine that: using illicitly obtained taxpayer money to fund your bid to be the chief fiscal watchdog of the county!

But there he was, somehow giving a public presentation for a park project in North Buffalo while he is under federal indictment.

Mansouri years ago was associated with former Erie County Democratic Chairman G. Steven Pigeon, a sketchy political operator who now sits in prison for child rape. Mansouri was a major political donor to the tune of more than $500,000 to politicians and political committees between 1999 and 2021, News reporter Dan Herbeck noted in a 2022 profile of Mansouri. 

Last week, Brown said he and members of his administration were unaware the contract was awarded to someone under federal indictment.

“There is no question this is…