Endowments for Harvard, Yale invested in suspect racetrack

The Associated Press The universities have invested endowment funds with a Boston realty group with ties to a racetrack at the heart of a criminal probe. With investments through Realty Financial Partners, money from schools such as Harvard, Yale, Emory and the University of Rochester are linked to a battle to control Plainridge Racecourse in Plainville. Norfolk District Attorney William Keating is investigating fraud allegations at the center of the dispute, including the possibility that a document presented to the State Racing Commission was forged, The Boston Globe reported yesterday. Harvard spokesman Joe Wrinn would not say if Harvard officials knew about the realty group's association with the racetrack. ''That's private information,'' he said. Realty Financial Partners paid $7 million for the 90-acre site in 1998. But Louis Giuliano, a Rhode Island horseman linked to organized crime in published reports, has an option to buy the land for $9.5 million. If Giuliano declines, the realty group can sell the land -- considered prime warehouse property -- for as much as $14 million. Either way, its investors benefit. But before any deals can be done, the group will have to deal with a lawsuit filed by current racetrack operator Gary Piontkowski. Piontkowski says that he has a 30-year lease on the facility, with an option to buy. But Giuliano says his signature on the lease was forged. The realty group says Piontkowski has no option to lease or buy the track. Officials at universities that have placed endowment funds with Realty Financial Partners say they don't monitor the group's investment, and some offered praise for the company. ''It's a good outfit that gets a good return and does good work,'' one university official said. Universities rarely invest in high-risk real estate ventures. According to a 1998 survey by the National Association of College and University Business Officers, nearly 90 percent of endowment money is invested in stocks and bonds. For universities with large endowments, however, riskier investments are more common. Harvard, Yale and Emory, for example, are among the 10 universities nationwide with the largest endowments, with assets of more than several billion dollars.