Morse donor handled settlement
Incoming mayor vows to fire firm that negotiated $170K personal injury deal
The incoming mayor said Thursday he will fire the company that negotiated a $170,000 personal injury settlement with Shawn M. Morse after the former mayor hired the company to work for the city, and then took campaign donations from the firm.
“There are conf licts there; I have a problem there,” said Bill Keeler, the unopposed Democratic mayoral candidate. “It didn’t pass the smell test.”
Keeler, a retired State Police major, said the replacement of Triad Group of Troy will be one of the first things he deals with when he takes office Jan. 1.
Morse, who took office in January 2016, hired Triad Group to represent the city in insurance cases, according to city officials. The former mayor, who was forced out of office
victims, took action after it was discovered the Hussains were trying to sell the Wilton motel.
Amanda Halse and 16 friends were on their way to a birthday celebration in Cooperstown when the limousine owned by the Hussains’ Prestige Limousine ran a stop sign on Route 30 in Schoharie and crashed into a ditch. All of the passengers as well as the driver and two men in the parking lot were killed when the limo’s brakes failed and it plowed through a parking lot at the Apple Barrel Country Store and crashed in a ditch.
Nauman Hussain, who was operating the limo company at the time of the crash, and his father Shahed Hussain, who is living in Pakistan, are listed as defendants in numerous civil lawsuits filed by family members of the crash victims. They seek financial compensation for pain and suffering. The Hussains’ insurer has said there is only $500,000 in insurance coverage on the crash. The limit would cap the potential payout from the insurance at $25,000 per victim.
Nauman Hussain is also facing 20 counts each of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges. He is scheduled to go on trial in March in Schoharie County Court.
Buchanan signed the order Monday, blocking the sale of the Crest Inn Suites as well as properties the Hussains own in Saratoga Springs, Troy and Rensselaer. All four had been on the market recently, according to George Lamarche III, the attorney representing Edward Halse, who filed the request in state Supreme Court in Ballston Spa. The motel had been listed for sale for $1 million in July.
“We had concerns that one sale was imminent, and we wanted to stop them from selling,” Lamarche told the Times Union after the order was granted Monday. A hearing is set for Oct. 31 at the Saratoga County Courthouse for the Hussain family to oppose the freezing of any sales of the properties.
Lamarche’s motion to the judge asserted that the sale was part of an effort by the Hussains to “avoid an inevitable judgment” against them and their properties. Nauman, his brother and his father own 15 properties, including the motel, with a total market value of $2.5 million.
A sale of the motel appears less likely after the state Department of Health condemned the motel property last week over health concerns. The department had previously denied Nauman Hussain’s brother Shahyer a permit to operate the motel in September.
Lamarche presented the judge with paperwork that showed the Hussains tried to sell the motel in 2014, although the sale never materialized. This time around, the motel was on the market for $1 million. The broker, Anna Baker of the Trevett Group of Ballston Spa, had told an associate of Lamarche that “there was an interested buyer” of the motel. Baker could not be reached for comment, and it is unclear if any attorney is representing the Hussains on their listings.
Making things more complicated is the fact that in 2010, the Hussain family changed the name on the deed to the motel to Malik Riaz Hussain, a Pakistani billionaire who Shahed Hussain has claimed in various civil and criminal court testimony to be his brother.
Shahed Hussain also claimed that Malik Riaz Hussain, who is more likely a brother-in-law, had loaned him money to pay for the motel.
However, Shahed Hussain has posed as a rich Pakistani businessman while working as an undercover informant for the FBI on anti-terrorism cases, using various aliases, including Malik, which also may be Shahed Hussain’s real name.
Lamarche said he doesn’t know if Malik Riaz Hussain owns the motel or if the name is being used to disguise Shahed Hussain’s ownership for other reasons.
“That’s the million-dollar question,” Lamarche said.