Some people wonder why things don't turn out like the polls say they will. Well, here is the answer!
Pollster guilty of fake data conspiracy
MICHAEL P. MAYKO
mmayko@ctpost.com BRIDGEPORT A polling company owner admitted participating in a conspiracy to falsify data in order to meet deadlines for clients, which included the campaigns of President Bush, U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Mayor John M. Fabrizi.
Tracy Costin, 46, of Madison, admitted to U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall that she participated in a conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Costin, who owned and operated DataUSA, a survey and polling firm with offices in West Haven and Guilford, faces up to five years in prison when she is sentenced Nov. 30.
However a preliminary calculation of the federal sentencing guidelines call for Costin to receive a sentence ranging from 27 to 33 months in prison and a fine of $6,000 to $60,000.
As part of her plea agreement, Costin agreed to repay $82,732 to the clients of 11 jobs between June 2002 and May 2004. The clients were not identified.
However, court documents identify numerous political clients, as well as Metro-North Railroad, as customers of DataUSA, now known as Viewpoint USA.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Chang said the firm's employees conducted telephone interviews using a scripted questionnaire.
But Chang said on several occasions when the company was running up against a deadline to complete a job, results were falsified. Sometimes, the respondent's gender or political affiliation were changed to meet a quota, other times all survey answers were fabricated.
FBI Special Agent Jeff Rovelli said 50 percent of information compiled by DataUSA and transmitted to Bush's campaign was falsified.
There was no indication that the Fabrizi campaign surveys were falsified.
Leonard Mastri, Costin's ex-husband, told the FBI the results for a Metro-North survey were fabricated.
Mastri, the former owner of Computer Guys and PM Consulting in Bridgeport, was arrested and convicted for selling computers stolen from Sikorsky Aircraft.
The FBI, along with agents from the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, investigated both cases.
