The longtime operator of the Downtown Heliport is pushing for a proper investigation right into a contract given to its substitute by the Adams administration, The Submit has realized.
Saker Aviation, which has run the city-owned heliport for 18 years, filed the most recent objection after the town Financial Growth Company picked the Downtown Skyport LLC to run the power, which is utilized by President Trump’s Marine One and by US army and federal regulation enforcement officers.
“We write to you to express our strong belief that a criminal investigation should be commenced immediately into this matter,” Saker chairman William Wachtel stated in a Feb. 14 letter to DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber.
If metropolis officers have been conscious of criminal activity and selected to disregard it, that needs to be investigated as nicely, Wachtel stated.
The substitute firm is a partnership that features Skyport Infrastructure — the UK-based Skyports agency and the operator of the London Heliport — and France’s Groupe ADP, which operates Paris’ three airports.
Wachtel stated the substitute group needs to be disqualified as a result of it appeared to have made “material misrepresentations” to the EDC that embrace allegedly concealing “felonious activity” by Groupe ADAP subsidiaries with tasks in Croatia, Madagascar, Libya and the United Arab Emirates.
Wachtel stated within the letter that there have been “four separate patterns of collusion and bribery” by Groupe ADP subsidiaries with airport growth tasks abroad that resulted in two deferred prosecution agreements with French authorities. These offers included a $15 million positive in 2023 and “debarment by the World Bank Group in 2022,” the letter acknowledged.
DOI declined to remark.
Final week, Wachtel appealed to metropolis Comptroller Brad Zander to reject the contract for a similar causes.
The comptroller’s workplace stated the contract continues to be beneath evaluation.
In a press release to The Submit final week, EDC defended the brand new contract with the Downtown Skyport consortium, however stated Saker’s new objection was being reviewed.
Skyport gained the contract by way of a aggressive bidding course of.
Each of its international corporations have developed the usage of quieter electrical vertical takeoff and touchdown plane, a high precedence of Mayor Eric Adams.
Helicopter noise has lengthy been a serious bane of New York Metropolis residents, with 59,000 complaints recorded final 12 months.
“On its face, this ‘under review’ acknowledgment leads to one ineluctable conclusion, to wit, that the City was not aware of this company’s serial criminal conduct,” Wachtel stated.
Skyport declined to remark.
