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

A new research is being launched by a state committee with explosive accusations of corruption mismanagement of inhabitants 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 statements The committee has sent a summons letter to MCCA CEO Marcel Vernon who was appointed to the position after the timing of these charges 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 informed in contemporary times 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 explained I regard this probe as very vital and necessary and I regard the Committee as an ally of those of us who have been working to improvement the Authority There will no doubt be certain who will try to impede the review I will not be one of them Like the Committee I believe that the constituents is entitled to complete transparency about this subject and I intend to work actively to help the Committee achieve that transparency he announced The letter from Montigny addresses a laundry list of concerns the committee is examining 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 materials by the Chief Information Precaution 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 Safety 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 Statements of misconduct spread even further into the Authority Leadership and precaution 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 Advocacy 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 lately closed a bid on a contract for a complete overhaul of its IT precaution system and server and orders that the dismantling of the Authority s current IT guard 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 defense system and firewall be put on hold indefinitely pending the outcome of this research 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 evidence right now stored in its current IT guard system Conclusively to protect the integrity of the Authority s internal records in accordance with the society records law and this inquiry the committee hereby requests that the Authority bring on an outside expert approved by the Secretary of the Commonwealth s Supervisor of Residents Records to recover the populace 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 disclosed individuals to interfere with this assessment will be referred to the appropriate law enforcement government Montigny and the committee are ordering the requested records be delivered within two weeks setting a deadline of December The new review comes just days after the Herald informed that Vernon and other MCCA agents 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