May 24 2016
ROCHESTER, NY – Bill Nojay is a millionaire, attorney, businessman and radio show host who is heard on several stations including WLEA. On the show, Nojay often discusses political corruption in Albany. The Democrat and Chronicle broke two stories this week, reporting that Nojay owns some businesses that he did not tell the state ethics committee about.
JCOPE, the State’s Joint Committee on Public Ethics, requires state lawmakers like Nojay to submit a list of all their business dealings outside of their state legislature work. According to the Democrat and Chronicle, Bill Nojay helped Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren run for office, but did not disclose the about $30,000 he made for that. A source says that may not have been illegal, but was something Nojay would not have wanted known.
The D&C also says Nojay also has a legal judgement against him for about a million dollars. The Democrat and Chronicle says Nojay is also accused in Cambodia of defrauding a Cambodian investor out of a million dollars, and the D&C says the state assemblyman owned a company that was going to buy a Pennsylvania animal feed company, and that Nojay backed out of the deal, and that there’s an about 10 million dollar lawsuit against Nojay over that. The Rochester newspaper (and it should be noted that Bill Nojay and WYSL Nojay co-host Bob Savage, have been very critical of Gannett and the Democrat and Chronicle on their radio show) the newspaper quoted Nojay as saying that he did not have to mention any of these matters on his ethics form.
Critics of Nojay say that he is guilty of hypocrisy for attacking others on his show for political corruption and then finds himself in this highly questionable situation. Supporters of Nojay say these accusations are against Bill Nojay are flimsy.
We contacted Bill Nojay by email, and this is his response to the stories in the D&C:
“I have been involved with political campaigns for over 40 years, and have helped both Republicans and Democrats get elected. Where there is no Republican running, I support the Democrat I believe will do the best job. As far as finance filings go, the campaigns I’ve been involved with have always done the necessary filings and even gone beyond what is required. This is an election year, so people will throw around a lot of accusations, but that’s usually a sign of desperation. Voters are smart enough to know what’s important and how to separate the talk from the action.”
Click here to read Democrat and Chronicle story #1 about Bill Nojay.
Click here to read D&C story #2 about Bill Nojay.
