The FBI has questioned the former CEO of a waste disposal company, Modern Corp., about the contracts it received from Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown’s administration and its contributions to Brown’s political campaign committee.
Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown
By Dan Herbeck, Buffalo News
The former chief operating officer of a Lewiston waste disposal business testified before a federal grand jury earlier this year about campaign donations to Mayor Byron W. Brown and the company’s contracts with the City of Buffalo, two sources said.
Gary E. Smith, the former Modern Corp. executive, was also questioned three times by FBI agents investigating the criminal activities of G. Steven Pigeon, the former Erie County Democratic Party chairman and lobbyist.
Pigeon has been cooperating with the FBI since pleading guilty to political corruption charges more than two years ago.
According to two sources with knowledge of the investigation, Smith told authorities that the mayor never demanded campaign donations from him in exchange for Brown approving Modern Corp.’s city contracts.
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Smith also told authorities he does not know what conversations Pigeon had with the mayor, the two sources said.
Those sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Buffalo News that Smith gave authorities the following information:
• In 2015, Pigeon worked for Modern as a $25,000-a-month lobbyist, and one of Pigeon’s duties was trying to convince Brown and other city officials to give Modern a no-bid extension on its contract to dispose of the city’s garbage. The contract was worth about $5.5 million a year.
• Pigeon at one point asked Smith to pay him an additional $5,000 a month for Maurice Garner, a close political associate and confidante of Brown, in hopes that Garner could help convince the mayor to approve the contract extension. The Modern executive balked at the $5,000 but agreed to pay Pigeon an additional $2,500 a month for Garner’s help. Smith told authorities he does not know whether Pigeon gave that money to Garner.
• An aide to the mayor told Smith in May 2015 that the city had decided to extend Modern’s contract, but the city quickly changed course and put the contract up for public bidding after FBI agents and State Police raided Pigeon’s home office in downtown Buffalo, seizing his computers and business records.
