Arleare13

Arleare13 t1_itmblzb wrote

It was a plea deal, basically. According to the article and the court papers, they agreed to a deferred prosecution agreement in exchange for admitting wrongdoing, paying back restitution to the government, and paying $8 million in fines. So they didn't give "some" of the money back, they gave back everything that the government intended to prove they stole, plus a fine of over twice that amount. They also agreed to oversight by a federal monitor going forward, which isn't a minor concession.

207

Arleare13 t1_itln0ji wrote

Seems to be even weirder than that. According to the website it's a project of the National Civic Art Society, which is this weird Trump-affiliated non-profit devoted to "classical" architecture, at the exclusion of all other styles. They were in the news a couple of years back for instigating Trump's short-lived executive order banning all other styles of architecture for federal projects.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/arts/design/federal-building-architecture.html

Redoing Penn Station is a worthwhile area of discussion, but I'd be very suspicious of this organization's motives and affiliations.

23