During a public meeting Monday, Hormoz Mansouri led the discussion about a master plan his company developed for Shoshone Park in North Buffalo, to be paid for with federal funds from the American Rescue Plan.
Left unspoken was the 40-count federal indictment against Mansouri leveled in March 2022 accusing him of misusing federal grant money, or how his El Team was awarded a $175,000 contract by the City of Buffalo’s Department of Public Works, Parks and Streets while he’s under indictment.
That changed Tuesday morning, after a reporter with The Buffalo News asked Mansouri and the Brown administration how and why he got the contract, which includes making improvements to Trinidad Park.
Within hours, Mansouri notified the Brown administration he was withdrawing from the project.
“The Department of Public Works received a letter saying the firm is resigning from the project,” city spokesman Michael DeGeorge told The News on Tuesday afternoon.
Mansouri is well-known to Buffalo politicians. The Amherst businessman – who was born in Pakistan, grew up in Iran and earned a doctorate in the U.S. in nuclear engineering – gave more than $500,000 to lawmakers and political committees between 1999 and 2021.
The El Team website says the architecture, engineering, planning and construction company has done work for the City of Buffalo, Erie County and several municipalities in the region.
Hormoz L. Mansouri, a well-known…
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