POMONA — Catskill Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation board members on Tuesday dismissed the findings of a recently released 2018 state inspector general's report that said their longtime president mismanaged the public corporation now flirting with bankruptcy.
At its first meeting since the report's public release, the board strongly defended President Donald Groth's work and said the inspector general's report was a compilation of untrue allegations.
Board members said they had no previous conversations with Groth about the report's findings before Tuesday. During the nearly four-hour board meeting none questioned Groth about its findings.
"We know it's all fabricated and probably politically motivated," said board member Vincent Tamagna. "We spend our time trying to figure out how we can get (the) OTB to survive. It's not worth our time."
Board members also claimed the state Gaming Commission, which regulates OTBs, lied to the Times Union when the commission said it had forced the OTB to clean up its act in the wake of the report. Board members said they never saw the report until it was released in March and the commission did not address it with them previously. A spokesman for the commission could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday regarding that claim.
The inspector general's report found Groth had spent millions to rent warehouses and office space which he filled with worthless equipment and trash. The inspector general also concluded Groth misused...
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