New investigation launched into alleged corruption, destruction of evidence at Convention Center

A new analysis is being launched by a state committee with explosive statements of corruption mismanagement of constituents funds and attempting to destroy evidence among other things by leadership at the Massachusetts Convention Center Documents provided exclusively to the Herald show the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight will be calling on leadership at the Seaport center to provide information and documents related to the accusations The committee has sent a summons letter to MCCA CEO Marcel Vernon who was appointed to the position after the timing of these accusations in October to curb reports of racial bias and discrimination Vernon responded to the letter sent by state Senator and Committee Chair Mark Montigny saying he welcomes the summons As Justice Brandeis observed sunlight is the best disinfectant In my opinion as someone who was hired a little over a year ago to try to start addressing the very problems that the Committee has correctly identified as troubling ones the scrutiny stated in the present day by the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight is a welcome much-needed initiative to help root out the historic all-too-entrenched issues faced by the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority Vernon mentioned I regard this assessment as very pivotal and necessary and I regard the Committee as an ally of those of us who have been working to reorganization the Authority There will no doubt be a few who will try to impede the scrutiny I will not be one of them Like the Committee I believe that the citizens is entitled to complete transparency about this subject and I intend to work actively to help the Committee achieve that transparency he declared The letter from Montigny addresses a laundry list of concerns the committee is assessing including bombshell corruption accusations among leadership at the MCCA related to procuring contracts surveilling employees without their consent hiring outside law firms and private investigators to gather information on employees and destroying physical and electronic evidence among other things Please describe the use of MCCA guidance by the Chief Information Safeguard Officer to investigate and surveil Authority employees without authorization Please describe the justification processes and procedures to access monitor and delete information from MCCA employee emails and accounts as well as accessing employee laptop cameras and microphones the summons letter requested Please also describe the internal MCCA rules or regulations that would permit the Chief Information Measure Officer to utilize such practices The letter also implicated former Chief Financial Officer Mike Esmond in making multiple withdrawals from the Convention Center Fund between and and using separate accounts in order to subvert the statutory cap on taxpayer subsidies for MCCA administrative and operational spending The former CFO is also allegedly behind questionable high-cost overruns through change orders under the Capital Projects division Accusations of misconduct spread even further into the Authority Leadership and protection personnel at the MCCA are accused of attempting to destroy physical and electronic records The committee says in August the then-Chief Information Protection Officer Director of Technical Operations and the Lead IT Sponsorship Services Technician swapped out MCCA employee laptops for new IT equipment in the midst of two open investigations into the Authority Montigny s letter addresses how the MCCA of late closed a bid on a contract for a complete overhaul of its IT shield system and server and orders that the dismantling of the Authority s current IT prevention system and firewall be put on hold indefinitely Given that records are stored in devices as well as IT prevention systems servers and firewalls the Committee requests that the dismantling of the Authority s current IT prevention system and firewall be put on hold indefinitely pending the outcome of this inspection Montigny wrote before going on to request the documents be recovered by an outside expert approved by the Secretary of State s Office to ensure no Authority employees can get to them We similarly request that the Authority preserve all statistics in the present stored in its current IT prevention system In the end to protect the integrity of the Authority s internal records in accordance with the masses records law and this examination the committee hereby requests that the Authority bring on an outside expert approved by the Secretary of the Commonwealth s Supervisor of Society Records to recover the general records identified in the Auditor s account and those identified in Attachment A he continued No Authority personnel listed in Attachment A shall be involved in the production of these records and any attempt by mentioned individuals to interfere with this scrutiny will be referred to the appropriate law enforcement agents Montigny and the committee are ordering the requested records be delivered within two weeks setting a deadline of December The new research comes just days after the Herald released that Vernon and other MCCA personnel have been called to testify before the Joint Committee on Racial Equity Civil Rights and Inclusion on efforts to curb racial bias and discrimination from the Authority Montigny s office declined a Boston Herald request for comment