City monitors Bill donor’s biz
A MAYOR de Blasio fund-raiser whose construction firm has been under a criminal probe over political contributions has agreed to have city investigators monitor his company’s contracts, the Daily News has learned.
The city Department of Investigation has been looking into Husam Ahmad’s firm HAKS and its sister company, SIMCO Engineering, since August, when it executed search warrants on their offices, city records show.
The warrants sought information on donations to de Blasio’s 2013 mayoral run and SIMCO’s status as a minority-owned and disadvantaged business. HAKS and SIMCO employees gave a total of $45,100 in contributions to the de Blasio campaign.
HAKS, which has gotten more than $365 million in city contracts over the past two decades, entered into an agreement with DOI on April 24 to have an independent monitor oversee its business.
The monitor will review HAKS’ ethical standards, have access to its books and keep tabs on the firm’s operation, according to HAKS’ lawyer, Howard Rubin. The monitor — consulting firm Thacher Associates — will then report its findings to the DOI.
HAKS set up a similar arrangement with the Port Authority and the MTA last year, according to Rubin.
“Because of the search warrant — even though that’s all that’s happened — we wanted to give all the agencies we work with a level of comfort,” Rubin said. “It was our suggestion that we have a monitor put in place.”
The monitoring agreement was disclosed in a filing with the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services.
Rubin said DOI has not provided HAKS any information about the investigation or its status.
DOI officials declined to comment on the monitoring agreement and on the status of the probe. A rep for the mayor also declined comment.
Ahmad, who lives in Forest Hills, Queens, started HAKS in 1991. It has grown to a company with 675 employees and 15 branches.
He also owns a 45% stake in SIMCO, which has a disadvantaged business enterprise status. The designation helps socially and economically disadvantaged firms get government contracts and increase diversity.
Both HAKS and SIMCO have been awarded hefty contracts from various city agencies since de Blasio took office — some even after the DOI raided their offices.
Ahmad personally raised $6,400 in contributions for de Blasio’s 2013 campaign, records show.
He did not give directly to de Blasio — principals of firms that do business with the city can only give a maximum of $400 to a candidate. But his wife made the maximum contribution — $4,950 — to de Blasio’s 2013 campaign and donated $4,500 to his transition team.
In June 2014, de Blasio appointed Ahmad to the board of advisers of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, a nonprofit that solicits donations to promote city causes.
A year later, Ahmad donated between $20,000 and $59,000 to the fund. He’s also donated between $5,000 and $20,000 to the Gracie Mansion Conservancy.
Ahmad has also given a total of $119,000 in donations to Gov. Cuomo since 2009. Cuomo got another $75,250 from Ahmad’s wife.
Rubin said the donations never came with strings attached.
“He received no favors,” Rubin said of Ahmad.