New Haven Independent

The remark Wednesday by foundation President William Ginsberg (pictured) is the latest wrinkle in a controversial case now before the probate court, a case raising the question of whether an inside deal cheated a fund disabled and deathly sick children of upwards of $100,000.

“My expectation would have been the house comes to us [to sell]. Other houses come to us. We are selling a house right now,” Ginsberg said.

The lawyer handling the widow’s estate, Gabriel H. Cusanelli, couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday. He previously defended the deal as above board.

The broker he hired claimed Wednesday that someone at the foundation had approved the sale, though he didn’t know that person’s name.

A Trail of Questions

The case involves the estate of one Margaret Amrich, who died in 2005. She declared in her will she was leaving behind her two-family house at 18 Cottage St. and her other property to the Community Foundation “for the benefit and care of crippled children as well as children suffering with cancer and organizations caring for these children.”

The attorney for her estate, Cusanelli, sold the house to two of his business partners in a deal that has raised eyebrows for a number of reasons.

The sale price, for instance: $250,000. Both the city assessor and the firm conducting New Haven’s reassessment tagged the sale as well below market value. At least one neighbor said he wanted to buy it for $350,000 but never got the chance. The broker in the deal, Robert Sacco, said (in this article) that he regularly tries to steer such sales to business associates, friends and other insiders rather than give the general public time to drive up the price.

Even the sale date is unclear. Land records show the sale taking place on April 12, 2006. But according to Sacco, it took place the previous August. The dates are significant, because between those two dates, Cusanelli dissolved a limited liability corporation he had formed with the two men who bought the house, former city government dealmaker Sal Brancati and Mark Perez.

And now the house is up for sale again — at a jacked-up price, $379,000. The owners claim they’ve improved the value by making major repairs. The city has no building permits on file for work done on the property.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, whose office oversees the state’s Public Charities Unit, has expressed concern over the transaction. His office filed an appearance this week in probate court in connection with the case.

Next Steps

The foundation’s Will Ginsberg has expressed concern, too. “The more that comes to light, the more uncomfortable I am,” he said in a conversation Wednesday. “As far as I’m concerned, no one with authority at the foundation gave permission” for Cusanelli to sell 18 Cottage St.

In his six and a half years running the Community Foundation, Ginsberg said, the organization has inherited three houses, including 18 Cottage St. In the other two cases, the foundation handled the sale itself.

One instance involved the late Elizabeth Hird. She left the foundation her Killingworth home. She directed the proceeds to fund an environmental research and education center on Outer Island (one of the Thimble Islands, which Hird and her late husband owned).

The second instance involved a house on Everit Street in New Haven owned by Margaret Mack, who passed last summer. Ginsberg said the foundation is currently handling that sale, whose proceeds will support a variety of designated charitable purposes.

Attorney Cusanelli has been out of town on vacation this week, according to both broker Sacco and a woman answering the phone at Cusanelli’s law office. She said he would be calling in later on Wednesday for messages; he never returned a message left for comment.

Sacco did comment.

“I never heard of Will Ginsberg,” he said. He said that before he sold the property, he got word from Cusanelli that he had approval from a woman at the foundation. “They did give permission,” Sacco said. “All I know there was a woman” who had to see Sacco’s market study and give approval before he could go ahead and sell the house.

He said he doesn’t know the woman’s name. Did he see any approvals in writing? “I didn’t need to,” he responded. “I was dealing with the attorney who was in charge of the estate.”

The next step in the case: the probate court gives the foundation a “final accounting” of the estate. Then beneficiaries and other parties get to ask questions.

Will Ginsberg said he’s awaiting that final accounting before deciding what, if any, action to the foundation will take. “If we feel when we look at all the facts, if we feel Mrs. Amrich’s fund has been shortchanged, we will certainly look at what recourse we have.”

To read more on the Cottage Street sale, see these previous Independent stories, listed in chronological order below:

• “‘Crippled Children’ Shortchanged?”
• “AG Investigating Cottage St. Deal”
• “City: Deal Was ‘Not Honest’”
• “No Permits On File For 18 Cottage St.”
• “Insiders Paid $250K; He Would Have Paid $350K”