Thursday, October 1, 2026
Island Park resident Tommy Asher, and his wife, Maria, gave a $1,050 donation to Nassau’s chief deputy county executive Rob Walker’s Hicksville Republican Committee, according to Newsday, and now Walker is being investigated over the awarding of a $12 million federally funded contract to VIP Splash Waterways Recovery Group, also of Island Park. Asher is a principal of VIP Splash.
After Hurricane Sandy, Nassau County sought bids to clean up the local waterways of debris, and awarded a $4 million contract to VIP Splash, a company that was formed June 24, 2013, just two days before the first bid was put out. According to the report, the county re-bid the ammended contract again a month later, on July 23, after inserting a price sheet.
Many of the principals of VIP Splash are also the principals of Operation Splash, a not for profit environmental group. VIP Splash gave Walker’s committee a $2,925 donation on the same day Walker signed the original $4 million contract on behalf of the county.
In March, another VIP Splash principal, Kent Katter, amended the original contract to $12.2 million.
Then in April another company owned by Katter, Metropolitan Construction Group, gave $400 to the Nassau GOP, just two weeks before the amendment that brought the contract to $12 million was approved by the legislature.
Two weeks after that Maria Asher gave her donation to Walker’s Hicksville Club.
Walker confirmed he was under federal investigation when he testified at the corruption trial of Senator Dean Skelos.
Meanwhile the U.S. attorney’s office for New York’s Eastern District said it is looking into the VIP Splash contract.
The entire project was approved by the Nassau County Legislature and all work and billing was approved by FEMA, .
Both Asher and his lawyer, Dennis Lemke, said they had no comment.
