Task Force Raids Non-Profit Headed by Albany Priest
By Brendan J. Lyons
SCHENECTADY — A task force of FBI agents and state attorney general's investigators raided three offices tied to the Altamont Program early Wednesday, carting away records and computers from the statewide nonprofit organization that was founded decades ago by Father Peter Young. Two people familiar with the matter said the investigation may be focusing on the organization's use of grant funding, payroll expenditures and allegations that a former director of an affiliated drug-rehabilitation program, 820 River Street Inc., in Troy, had looted funds and misused a credit card. Agents from both agencies used search warrants to seize records at the Altamont Program's headquarters on Duane Avenue in Schenectady and also from an office at the Schuyler Inn in Menands, a converted motel now used as a training and housing facility for Vesta Community Housing Development Board Inc., which rehabilitates buildings rented to community service programs and low-income tenants. A third location raided Wednesday was an Altamont Program office on Eagle Street in Albany that has served as Young's office. Officials with the attorney general's office declined comment on their raids and gave no indication Wednesday that Young is a target of their investigation. Young is a leader at four nonprofit organizations he founded in the Capital Region and New York City that operate from 117 sites stretching from Buffalo to Brooklyn. The organizations provide housing, job training, employment and substance-abuse counseling to several thousand clients, including homeless people and ex-convicts. The priest is recovering from hip surgery and was not available for comment, a spokesperson for Altamont Program said. Young does not receive a salary for his work at Altamont Program and has donated his chaplain's salary to the program for more than 20 years, the group said in a statement issued after the raids Wednesday. A former Altamont Program employee, who spoke to the Times Union on the condition of not being identified, said investigators with the FBI and attorney general's office began interviewing current and former employees at the organizations last spring. In 2011, the FBI also received a letter from one of the former employees laying out allegations that large government grants that had been intended to be used to repair buildings and for other capital projects were being diverted to other uses. A copy of the letter was shared with the Times Union. Dennis Bassat, who was fired as executive director of the 820 River Street program last year, was alleged in the letter to have created payroll accounts for fictitious employees and misused the organization's credit card. Bassat was arrested Friday in Florida on a warrant from Rensselaer County charging him with being a fugitive from justice, according to public records. Kevin A. Luibrand, who is a board member for Altamont Program and also the group's legal adviser, said most of the records taken in the raids had already been turned over to state auditors during an earlier informal inquiry. He said that three people were terminated and another resigned after it was discovered that credit cards were being misused and "there was abuse going on with respect to money by a senior manager." "All Father Young's not-for-profits are subjected to annual independent audits that are detailed and involve all of his 117 or so sites," Luibrand said. "All of the audit issues that ever became known were fixed along the way, over the years." Luibrand, who is Young's cousin, said he has been involved with the program since 1981 when, while in law school, he helped Young renovate and open the 820 River Street building. "We reported to the state what we had discovered and our staff, from top to bottom, worked with the state for the past year during an audit of substantially all of the programs," Luibrand added. Young, 82, is an iconic Capital Region priest whose work with drug addicts and convicts began in the 1950s. He lived with Bishop Howard Hubbard in the 1960s at the former St. John's Church in Albany's South End, where the two priests laid groundwork for drug rehabilitation programs that served as the template for community service organization. Young also is renowned in political circles for his ability to garner grants and support from state lawmakers in Albany. The priest founded 820 River Street Inc., in Troy, which provides rehabilitation programs for drug addicts and alcoholics. Another organization, Peter Young Shelter Services, Inc., is a facility for homeless and addicted people founded by Young in Brooklyn in 2000. Contact: blyons@timesunion.com
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