Jul 3
2025
Report: OTB’s No. 2 helped himself to freebies
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An internal review at Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp. has found a senior executive spent more than $27,000 of the agency’s money on food and drinks for himself, his friends and other guests between 2021 and 2024.
The executive in question, Chief Operating Officer Scott Kiedrowski, was the right-hand man of former CEO Henry Wojtaszek, who he succeeded a decade ago as chairman of the Niagara County Republican Party. Byron Brown kept Kiedrowski on when he took over as CEO in October and gave him a $17,000 raise, bringing his pay to $190,000. Kiedrowski is also the subject of an ongoing lawsuit involving allegations of sexual harassment.
In addition to the free meals and drinks, the internal review uncovered that Kiedrowski has paid an exterminator hired to treat the Batavia Downs Hotel in cash on multiple occasions.
Those payments and the free meals and drinks are likely to be included in an audit State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is wrapping up. Auditors are due to present their findings to the OTB Board of Directors next week.
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OTB operates Batavia Downs Gaming and Hotel, which includes 34 Rush and Fortunes, the two restaurants and bars where Kiedrowski ran up the tabs, according to documents reviewed by Investigative Post.
In 2023, for example, a November transaction for $201 at 34 Rush bore a note “Scott K friends.” Seven transactions at that bar that year include notes that the spending was for Kiedrowski’s guests or friends.
The same pattern occurred at Fortunes. In 2022, for example, an August transaction for $156 and an October tab for $133 are listed as being for “Scott K friends.”
Both the free meals and cash payments were publicized by Brown in a memo issued last week and first reported by the Niagara Gazette. In the memo, the free meals and drinks were attributed only to an unnamed “officer.” Investigative Post has since learned that person is Kiedrowski. Brown’s report noted that his administration turned over supporting documentation to DiNapoli’s auditors and instituted reforms as a result.
The reforms include limiting who is eligible for free meals and drinks and better internal tracking when they’re distributed. Another reform ends cash payments to vendors.
The total value of the free meals and beverages Kiedrowski approved for himself and others could ultimately be thousands of dollars higher, an OTB source told Investigative Post. That’s because an internal review of the freebies revealed that only one-third of the transactions had an explanation attached.
The source cited a recent example: On June 11, they said, $97 worth of alcohol was distributed for free at 34 Rush. Upon investigation, the source said, they learned that the bartender had been instructed by Kiedrowski to supply a group of his friends with free drinks. No explanation for the freebie was listed in OTB’s internal systems, they said.
DiNapoli’s auditors, the source said, “are looking at house accounts.”
“They should, because it stands out like a sore thumb. It’s in black and white,” said the source, who was not authorized to discuss Kiedrowski’s spending publicly.
Kiedrowski did not respond to a phone call and text message seeking comment on the spending on Wednesday.
Mark Johnson, a spokesperson for DiNapoli, declined to comment on when DiNapoli might release his audit of OTB.
In a statement, Brown’s chief of staff, Steve Casey, said the reforms are aimed at ensuring there’s “greater oversight of the Corporation’s finances and more money for the member municipalities.”
“The new management team takes that charge very seriously and will continue to make the necessary changes to strengthen our internal controls and point out any issues we find,” he said.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomBrown’s report notes that OTB now has a new system to track who is authorized to distribute free meals, drinks, gaming credits and hotel stays. The system requires signatures in some cases and copies of physical coupons or receipts in others. In all cases, a clearly stated explanation for the giveaway must be entered into OTB’s point-of-sale system.
“Incomplete or vague notes will be subject to audit review,” Brown’s report notes. It goes on to say that comped meals and drinks will be audited monthly.
Brown’s report further details cash payments made by Kiedrowski to the hotel exterminator.
On May 23, the report states, an OTB official brought an envelope with $1,050 in cash to Brown and Casey, asking if they could give it to Kiedrowski, who had left work for the day. Kiedrowski was to then pay the hotel’s exterminator, Chuck Buscaglia, the report said.
Brown, Casey and another official present, however, “all collectively refused to accept the funds due to concerns regarding the payment method and lack of documentation.”
The report further details that Buscaglia did not have tax forms on file with OTB and did not carry an insurance policy to cover the work he was doing at the hotel.
The following day, the report notes, Brown and Casey informed Kiedrowski of the situation, who “acknowledged that this has happened in the past and that he found the cash payment practice ‘odd’ but did not intervene.”
Brown’s report states that such cash payments are now prohibited at OTB unless the agency has a written agreement with a vendor that requires it. That’s the case with some of the musical acts that play at the racetrack during the summer, for example.
In the event that an agreement requires cash payments, the report said, OTB will write the vendor a check, ask them to sign it and then cash the check on site and pay them in cash.
In an interview, OTB Director Paul Bartow, representing Schuyler County, said he and several other board members welcomed Brown’s reforms.
“The reform is a positive direction for Batavia Downs & Gaming in that we’ll have better insight … into some of the financial dealings,” he said.
“It is a step in the right direction, we will benefit from it. More transparency is well needed.”
