Topazio said he collected $125,000 from Cognos Corp. despite performing no work on the company’s behalf.
By KYLE CHENEY
BOSTON – Steven Topazio, the former law associate of ex-Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, said Thursday he collected $125,000 from Cognos Corp., a Canadian software company at the center of corruption allegations against the former speaker, despite performing no work on the company’s behalf.
Salvatore DiMasiFrom April 2005 to March 2007, Topazio said he collected monthly $5,000 checks from the company and directed $4,000 of each payment to DiMasi to fulfill a fee referral arrangement he said was standard practice for the two men. Of the $125,000 he collected, $65,000 went to DiMasi, Topazio told jurors in federal court.
Prosecutors contend that Topazio was the “unwitting conduit” through which DiMasi accepted bribes from Cognos in exchange for ensuring that Massachusetts signed two contracts totaling $17.5 million for the company’s software products. Topazio described signing a consulting agreement with Cognos earlier in 2007, when company official Joseph Lally, along with longtime Beacon Hill lobbyist Richard McDonough, visited him in his law office.
McDonough, along with DiMasi’s friend and accountant Richard Vitale, are also charged in the case. The three are charged with conspiracy, mail fraud and wire fraud. DiMasi is also charged with extortion.
During several hours of testimony that spanned two days, prosecutors displayed a collection of checks that Topazio had stored for years, detailing each of his payments to DiMasi, made shortly after he received his checks from Cognos. When his contract with the company expired, Topazio said he would call McDonough, who would in turn see to it that the contract was extended and any lapses in payments would be filled retroactively.
After one such lapse in 2006, Topazio said he contacted McDonough and eventually received a $25,000 check from Cognos. Topazio said he told DiMasi about the check, including that it came from Cognos, and said DiMasi demanded the whole thing, saying Topazio owed him $25,000.
“All I know is we had an argument,” Topazio said.
Topazio testified that he eventually mailed DiMasi the $25,000 check to his State House office but DiMasi returned it, demanding that Topazio break it down into four, smaller checks of varying amounts.
“I asked him why he wanted me to change a check,” Topazio said. “He didn’t answer me. He said, ‘That’s the way I want it.’”
Topazio then ripped the $25,000 check in two and saved it in his files. Prosecutors put the ripped check on display for jurors Thursday morning.
After questions about DiMasi’s role in the Cognos contracts began appearing in the Boston Globe, Topazio met with DiMasi to ask for an explanation. Topazio said he showed DiMasi the contract he signed with the company and that DiMasi asked him, “‘Why did you sign that contract?’” “I said, ‘Well this is the contract that two years earlier you told me to sign.’”
DiMasi’s lawyer, William Cintolo, pointed out that Topazio only paid DiMasi once in 2006 – the $25,000 check in December that year.
Other updates from the trial:
• Prosecutors told Judge Mark Wolf they still haven’t decided whether to call former Education Commissioner David Driscoll to the witness stand. Prosecutor Theodore Merritt noted Driscoll is on the witness lists of both the prosecution and the defense.
• Judge Wolf said he had concerns about an image one of the jurors posted on Facebook and cautioned that jurors can’t conduct any online research on the trial.
• Court is scheduled to resume on Monday at 9 a.m. Although proceedings are scheduled to wrap up at 1 p.m. each day, Wolf asked jurors and attorneys to anticipate afternoon sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday next week to make up for unexpected delays and lengthier-than-expected testimony from the first few witnesses.