Former Niagara County Treasurer David S. Broderick used his position as public administer of estates to give business to friends and family, according to an audit released Friday by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

Broderick also appears to have sold cars, houses and other personal property below their potential value and contracted with attorneys, real estate agents and appraisers without seeking competition, auditors found.

“There was a lax operation here that left open the possibility for exploitation,” DiNapoli said. “And we have to be sure that doesn’t happen again.”

The state audit reviewed 15 estates handled by Broderick during a five-year period, concluding that he failed to safeguard assets when he administered estates for people who died without wills or had no one qualified to oversee their estates.

Auditors who examined how Broderick sold off those assets found he could provide little or no documentation of how he came up with prices that were sometimes well below assessed values.

As a result, DiNapoli questioned whether Broderick worked in the best interests of the estates he was charged with protecting.

DiNapoli speaking in Niagara Falls on Friday

Among the questionable sales cited by auditors:

In July 2008, Broderick sold a decedent’s house in the Town of Lewiston, including tools, trucks and equipment on the property, through a private sale for $38,000. The town has assessed the fair market value of the home at the time at $86,000. The house sold again last May for $113,000.

Broderick sold another house in the Town of Niagara for $10,000 in August 2007. The town’s assessment of the house’s fair market value at the time was $89,000. Auditors found no evidence that Broderick attempted to solicit multiple offers through advertisements or any other public listing.

He sold three vehicles to a county sheriff’s deputy, a friend of Broderick’s son, for a total of $2,000. They included a 1970 Chevrolet Monte

Carlo that may have had “substantial value” to a classic car collector. Auditors said they found classified listings asking for as much as $38,000 for a 1970 Monte Carlo.

The state audit also faulted Broderick for using a county-paid secretary to work on the estates and noted that he used his wife, a real estate agent, and brother, an attorney, for some estate work.

The state audit, requested last year by two county judges, followed an investigation last April by The Buffalo News into Broderick’s handling of estate cases in Niagara County.

DiNapoli said he turned the audit findings over to Niagara County District Attorney Michael J. Violante to determine if any laws had been broken.

The comptroller said proving Broderick purposefully exploited the system is difficult because of a lack of documentation or oversight for many of the items sold.

“Certainly, when you don’t have adequate records and when some of the people involved in the transaction have personal relationships with the public administrator, it raises a big question,” DiNapoli said.

Violante was out of town Friday and could not be reached. In a letter obtained by The News last year, Violante said Broderick had done nothing wrong in handling an estate case that triggered the state comptroller’s audit. He also concluded that Broderick hadn’t used his county staff to work on estates.

Broderick, citing health concerns, abruptly quit his post in January.

He told auditors he received $306,415 in commissions for administering estates during the six-year period between Jan. 1, 2003, and Dec. 31, 2008, according to the report. Those commissions were in addition to his annual salary, which was $77,765 last year.

Broderick has denied wrongdoing.

“Nowhere in this report does it indicate that a single dollar was missing from an estate,” Broderick wrote in a lengthy response to the audit. “It is the conclusion of this public administrator that your audit is flawed in its methodology, and unfairly, critical of my procedure, without candidly regarding that the audit found NO instance in which any loss occurred during my administration of these many estates.”

Broderick also said that DiNapoli’s referral of the audit to the Niagara County district attorney was “unwarranted and without any basis.”

Broderick also provided explanations for several of the sales questioned by auditors, including:

The 1970 Monte Carlo sold to the sheriff’s deputy, Broderick said, was “just a frame with a small engine and did not run” and was sold by the deputy for parts.

Broderick said he obtained an independent appraisal of the Town of Lewiston property sold for $38,000 for the same amount. He also said the property was “in deplorable condition” and was later rehabilitated before it sold again for a higher price.

The house sold for $10,000 in the Town of Niagara was scheduled to be demolished, Broderick said.

Document: Read the state audit reviewing estates handled by Broderick