Frankenspeaks

Michelle Malkin has the latest dish on the Air America scandal, including an article in the NY Sun that includes some feedback from everyone's favorite self-help guru:

Mr. Franken said he has learned details of the story only in the last week. He said Piquant LLC, current owner and operator of the radio network, found a record of the transfers while conducting a "forensic" investigation into the finances of the previous owner, Progress Media, which was run by Mr. Cohen. That internal probe was conducted before the city agency became involved, Mr. Franken said. Efforts by The New York Sun to reach Mr. Cohen for comment in recent days have been unsuccessful.

What is significant about this article is the admission that Piquant LLC knew about this fiasco almost immediately after the time they acquired Progress Media, and yet have done nothing until now.

What I can't seem to get over is how everyone seems to treat Piquant LLC as a company that had nothing whatsoever to do with Progress Media and its doings, when in fact Piquant LLC is composed of the same people that made up Progress Media. It is certainly possible that Cohen and Rosen kept some of their fellow investors in the dark about this Gloria Wise deal, but given that Piquant LLC was primarily formed to dodge the legitimate debts of Progress Media, I find it hard to muster much/any sympathy.

Also significant is this:

He said Piquant's payments to Gloria Wise were scheduled to begin this month but were prevented from going through while the city investigation continued.

Without belaboring the point that it has been over a year since Piquant learned of this debt, we also wonder whether the city would really mind if Piquant began repayment of the money that started this whole investigation. I wonder if we could get a city official to comment on that.

What is less significant, to my thinking, is the apparent contradiction (as observed by Captain Ed) between Franken's statement:

Mr. Franken said he did not know if money from Gloria Wise had been absorbed by the network and used to finance its operations.

And the unequivocal statement of the company that they never received any of the money. I put this down to Franken's general bumbling idiocy, rather than an official statement on behalf of the company.

Let me say it again, the key issue in this case, as Professor Bainbridge and others have noted, is the extent to which Piquant LLC was formed as a deliberate attempt to avoid legitimate debt, and also to avoid prosecution for the wrongdoings of Progress Media. So far, the evidence doesn't look good for the good folks at Piquant.

Brian Maloney also has some more worthwhile comments today, which again seem to treat Progress Media and Piquant LLC as companies composed of entirely different people. Am I missing something?

UPDATE: Welcome, Michelle Malkin readers!

Comments

[TC@LeatherPenguin]

When they rearranged the deck chairs on the SS Air Idiot, Progressive supposedly "sold assets" to Piquant. They owned no stations or even their own offices, which they borrowed from their flagship station WLIB's owners.

The only assets I can imagine they had was whatever cash in hand was laying around in some bank account, and an escalating pile of debts.

I agree with you: this seperating Piquant from Progressive is annoying as hell. Everywhere you look from Day One you see the Drobny's hand in the mix (and the till).