RI State Police release 38 Studios documents

By: News Staff

news@abc6.com

@ABC6

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — ABC6 News received all 38 Studios non-grand jury documents from the Rhode Island State Police investigation Thursday afternoon.

Ever since the civil case wrapped up, there have been calls for weeks now for all documents to be released.

There was a court hearing Thursday on this and State police did decide to make their reports public.

Now, no charges were ever filed in the 38 Studios lawsuit, but ABC6 learned that Providence attorney, Michael Corso, was investigated by State police for bank fraud.

The investigation went on for years and resulted in 150 formal interviews.

12 of those people provided testimony for the grand jury.

In the report, we learned a lot about Michael Corso’s involvement including how he was being investigated for his role in the 38 Studios construction costs.

Corso owned Tazza Restaurant in Providence at the time, and both his restaurant and the 38 Studios building were under renovation by the same contractor.

That contractor undercharged Corso’s restaurant, and overcharged 38 Studios, but no evidence was ever found to prove Corso knew about it.

Another important piece of new information in the documents is that Representative Gordon Fox never spoke with State police investigators at the request of his attorney, William Murphy.

Fox remains in federal prison for wire fraud.

ABC6 has been told that these documents are everything the State police have.

The governor once again is requesting that all documents in this investigation be released including grand jury testimony.

That testimony still has to be entered into the court system.

©WLNE-TV / ABC6 2017