Journal file photo
Gordon Fox
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- House Speaker Gordon D. Fox has earned $40,319 in legal fees over the past two years as a closing attorney on small-business loans from the troubled Providence Economic Development partnership.
Fox, a lawyer, also was paid an undetermined amount of money for closing work in the five years prior to that, but the PEDC cannot say how much because Fox was working during that period as a "sub-contractor" to another agency lawyer, Joshua Teverow.
Fox was hired by then-Mayor David N. Cicilline, his friend and political ally and now a first-term Congressman. Both men are facing strong challenges for re-election.
The PEDP has suspended loans while it addresses a federal-government report that criticized its lax oversight of loans and its 60-percent default rate. The report does not cite Fox or closing attorneys as a problem.