Rhode Island's House of Representatives intends to resume hearings on the 38 Studio bond financing fiasco following the release of tens of thousands of
Mattiello, in a statement released to the media late Friday, said he is conferring with Rep. Karen MacBeth, D-Cumberland, chairwoman of the House oversight committee, about a timetable.
"We want to assess what went wrong and why it went wrong so those mistakes are never repeated," said Mattiello, D-Cranston.
Lawmakers held similar hearings last year.
Judge Michael Silverstein of Rhode Island Superior Court ordered the previously sealed documents released. Court officials made them available earlier Friday.
They include depositions from former governors Donald Carcieri and Lincoln Chafee; former House Speaker Gordon Fox, who pleaded the Fifth Amendment; and Michael Corso, an attorney and Fox confidante seen as a pivotal broker in connecting lawmakers with Curt Schilling, the former major league baseball pitcher who founded video-game company 38 Studios.
Schilling has yet to testify, according to Mattiello.
Fox is serving a three-year sentence in a Pennsylvania federal prison for stealing $108,000 of campaign donations, accepting a $52,000 bribe and filing false tax returns.
In 2010, the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. provided a $75 million loan to Schilling's company, funded by the legislature and backed by the state's moral obligation, to entice the company to relocate to downtown Providence from Maynard, Mass.
The company shut down in 2012 and filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy. State officials sued 14 parties including Schilling, former EDC officials and legal advisors, and financial advisors including First Southwest - the state's own financial advisor - and Wells Fargo Securities LLC.
According to Providence television station WPRI, the State Police are examining the activities of Corso, who according to documents was poised to make $3.75 million from the deal, or 5% of the loan value. The station, citing documents and emails, said the deal also included a 2% ownership stake in the company.
"People in Rhode Island have such a sour taste from 38 Studios," Gov. Gina Raimondo said in a Bond Buyer interview earlier this month in Providence. She opposed it while running for general treasurer, an office she held from 2011 to 2014.
"It was a terrible deal from day one, but we can't let that paralyze us while we're trying to rebound from a weak economy," she said.
Also skeptical about the deal at the time was Rosemary Booth Gallogly, the state's director of administration and later its revenue director.
In a July 14, 2010
Gallogly, now retired, worried about a disproportionately large award to a "pre-revenues" company.
"One could question if our share of the financing is appropriate for such a hit-driven business venture [$40 million equity/$75 million State of RI taxpayers]," she wrote.
Speaking under oath, Carcieri said that despite his respect for Gallogly, he did not share her letter with the EDC board before its final vote, "I didn't think that it was necessary to bring it to the board because I was asking for her personal opinion," he said.
Rhode Island has made debt payments on the 38 Studio bonds the past two years, after bond rating agencies threatened to downgrade the state. Moody's Investors Service rates Rhode Island GOs Aa2. Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's rate them AA.
After making payments the past two years, Rhode Island owes just under $74 million in future principal and interest, state documents say.
The Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. is now Rhode Island Commerce Corp.
