DiMasi's friend resigns from firm
Cofounder aided ticket brokers, gave speaker loan
Richard D. Vitale resigned yesterday from the large Charlestown accounting firm he cofounded 30 years ago, Vitale, Caturano & Co., after the recent disclosure that he helped Massachusetts ticket brokers push legislation on Beacon Hill while failing to register as a lobbyist.
The resignation came under pressure from his partners at the firm, according to someone who read a letter from the partners warning Vitale that he would be fired if he did not resign by yesterday at noon.
A personal profile and photo of Vitale, who founded the 300-person firm with partner Richard Caturano in 1978, had been removed the company's website yesterday.
A close friend of House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, Vitale loaned DiMasi $250,000 through an unusual third mortgage written at an interest rate below the market rate on the speaker's North End condo in 2006. DiMasi paid off the $178,000 outstanding balance on the loan last week, after a Globe report on April 27 detailed the loan and Vitale's Beacon Hill efforts on behalf of the ticket brokers in 2007.
The state Republican Party has filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission, which has launched a multi-part probe of the speaker's actions, according to several state officials. It is a violation of state ethics law for a lobbyist to give anything to a public official.
Vitale has denied lobbying for the Massachusetts Association of Ticket Brokers, saying through his spokesman that he was a strategist. But the association said this week in filings with state regulators that it indeed retained Vitale as a lobbyist in 2007 and 2008.
George Regan, a spokesman for Vitale, said yesterday that Vitale was not forced to quit the accounting firm that bears his name.
"That's news to me," he said. Regan said that Vitale's departure was part of a "phased-in retirement" and "had been in the process for a long time."
A spokesman for the accounting firm, Richard Nicolazzo, said Vitale retired. He would not discuss whether Vitale had been forced out.
Nicolazzo said Vitale had been serving as chairman emeritus of the firm after redeeming his ownership shares in July 2007 when he hit the mandatory retirement age of 62. He said he has been retained in recent months as an employee of the firm to work on transferring his leadership and client responsibilities to other members of the firm.
"On behalf of everyone at Vitale, Caturano, we want to express our thanks to Dick for his many years of dedicated and distinguished service to our firm, clients, and the community," Nicolazzo said in a written statement.
Last week, in response to the April 27 Globe story and questions about his role on behalf of the ticket brokers, Vitale registered as a lobbyist for 2008, but he did not list clients or what he was paid, as required by law. He also did not register for 2007, when the ticket brokers said they used him as a lobbyist to push legislation that ultimately passed the House with DiMasi's support.
Vitale, Caturano, which had revenues last year of more than $63 million, says on its website that it is the fifth largest accounting firm in the state. It has been recognized as one of the fastest growing private companies in the country by Inc. magazine, and it has a long list of clients including
Vitale, who has been DiMasi's accountant and his campaign treasurer, runs an annual golf tournament hosted by DiMasi at the Ipswich Country Club, where they are both members. The tournament honors Vitale's brother, a Saugus police officer who died in the line of duty in the 1980s.
The tournament's sole "platinum" sponsor in 2004, 2005, and 2007 was
As a charitable organization, the group that ran the golf tournament, the Officer Harold L. Vitale Memorial Fund Inc., was supposed to be approved by the Internal Revenue Service so that donors could deduct donations from their taxes. But neither the attorney general's office nor the IRS had records of any required annual reports for the organization, which was set up in 1992 by Vitale, Caturano.
A spokeswoman for the attorney general said that several days after a Globe report about the charity golf tournament appeared in March, Vitale, Caturano filed reports for 2006, 2005 and 2004. The spokeswoman said the office expects Vitale, Caturano to request an extension to file for the fourth required year, 2007.
But by yesterday the fund was still not on an IRS list of charitable, tax-exempt organizations. Regan said yesterday that all the proper paperwork has been filed.
Andrea Estes can be reached at estes@globe.com. 