CONNECTED: Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera hired then-beau Vincent Pinela (above) for a taxpayer-funded job. Her brother Rodney has held state jobs. (Angel Chevrestt)
(Angel Chevrestt)
CONNECTED: Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera hired then-beau Vincent Pinela (right) for a taxpayer-funded job. Her brother Rodney (left) has held state jobs. (
)
Naomi Rivera now has the feds after her.
The FBI is investigating claims that the scandal-scarred Bronx assemblywoman hired her unqualified then-lover to run her taxpayer-funded nonprofit, and used the charity as her personal piggy bank, The Post has learned.
Agents yesterday paid a visit to the Rockland County home of Rivera’s ex-beau Vincent Pinela, the former $75,000-a-year head of her Bronx Council for Economic Development.
“I was at work when it happened,” Pinela told The Post, confirming the FBI door-knock.
“They spoke to my wife.”
Pinela declined to elaborate and referred questions to his lawyer, who did not return calls.
In explosive claims revealed in The Post, Pinela, 40, earlier this week detailed how Rivera, 49, hired him at her crony-packed BCED, and used charity funds for romantic dinners and campaign expenses.
The FBI has broad jurisdiction over nonprofits, particularly if federal grant money is involved. Federal law-enforcement polices non-profits, which are regulated by the IRS.
The BCED took in more than $1.2 million in government funds between 2005 and 2009, IRS records show
Rivera also is under scrutiny for putting her latest boy toy, Brooklyn teacher Tommy Torres, 35, on the payroll at her Morris Park district office. He logged 20 hours a week there, raking in more than $18,000 from Rivera at the same time he was pulling in $90,000 from his full-time city teaching and coaching jobs.
The allegations have sparked an avalanche of probes, with the state attorney general, the Bronx DA and special schools prober Richard Condon all now looking into Rivera.
Meanwhile, Rivera’s boyfriends aren’t the only ones who made a lucrative living on the taxpayer gravy train.
Her younger brother, Rodney Rivera, collected a $65,000 state taxpayer salary for nearly three years for doing little more than gathering news clips, according to former colleagues.
Rodney was a communications specialist and “clips digest supervisor” for the state Senate’s Democratic Conference from Sept. 24, 2007, through April 29, 2010, when he was fired, state Comptroller’s Office records show.
“He didn’t do much, and what he did do wasn’t done particularly well,” said one former colleague with firsthand knowledge of Rodney’s work.
The colleague said Rodney assembled morning newspaper clips for Democratic senators, a chore the colleague said took no more than an hour a day.
“Further than that, we never saw him given, or take on, any work responsibilities or portfolio,” said the colleague, who added that Rodney sometimes failed to include “major stories” when gathering news clips, and said Rodney’s $35,000-a-year replacement did a much better job.
“It caused a lot of consternation and problems in the conference,” another ex-colleague said. “Members often didn’t know that stories had broken” that impacted them.
The Riveras’ dad, Assemblyman and former Bronx Democratic leader José Rivera, pressured Senate Democratic leaders to give his son raises and spare him the ax more than once, the sources said.
Rodney has since scored a $74,000-a-year job as special assistant for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
He seemed less than thrilled after landing the gig last August, tweeting: “Day 2 back @ that 9-5 thing . . . Shout out to those fools out here like me . . . Suckers . . . A bigger shout out to those doing their own thing.”
Additional reporting by Julia Marsh