Dirtbag gets jail for house theft

From the Daily News:

A Queens ex-con pleaded guilty on Friday to stealing an elderly woman's house out from under her.

Darrell Beatty, 51, pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a forged instrument for using a phony deed to swipe Jennifer Merin's Laurelton house out from under her.

As a result of the plea deal, he'll get even more free housing — it calls for him to get a year in jail.

Merin, 72, said that's not enough time.

"I'm glad he's going to jail. He deserves to go to jail but I think that the sentence was too brief," she told the Daily News after Beatty's plea. "He lived in my house for longer than he will be in jail and he'll be out on the streets again."

So who will Scarborough flip on?

From the Observer:

New York State Assemblyman William Scarborough, a Democrat representing Queens, has agreed to enter guilty pleas to state and federal charges related to misusing his campaign funds and state travel reimbursements, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced today.

Mr. Scarborough, 69, will pleaded guilty this morning on the federal charges of wire fraud and theft concerning a program receiving federal funds. This afternoon, he will appear in an Albany court to plead guilty to state charges of grand larceny in the fourth degree related to the misuse of more than $40,000 from his campaign account.

The guilty plea comes just days after Republican State Senate Leader Dean Skelos was charged with using his position and influence to earn cash for his son, Adam Skelos, and months after Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was charged with disguising kickbacks and bribes as outside income. The rash of high-profile Albany corruption cases has spurred calls for ethics reforms, with some changes included in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s recently adopted state budget.

As part of the deal, Mr. Scarborough is expected to serve a year in jail for the state charge. He could face up to 20 years in prison on the federal wire fraud charge, and 10 years for the theft charge.

Mr. Scarborough has agreed to resign his position as an Assemblyman, donate his remaining campaign funds to charity, and pay $54,355 in restitution to the state.

Scarborough to plead guilty

From the Daily News:

Indicted Assemblyman William Scarborough is scheduled to plead guilty May 7 to two felony federal corruption charges, the Daily News has learned.

Scarborough was charged last year in an 11-count indictment by the Albany U.S. attorney's office with improperly claiming taxpayer-funded travel expenses.

As part of the tentative plea deal, Scarborough will cop to one count of improperly receiving money from a program that receives federal funds, a source with knowledge of the situation said.

He'll also plead to a count of wire fraud connected to transmitting of the ill-gotten gains into his bank accounts, the source said.

By pleading guilty to the two felonies, Scarborough will automatically be forced to give up his seat.

It's unclear whether the latest disgraced Albany lawmaker will face prison time.

He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years for improperly receiving money from a program that receives federal funds and up to 20 years for the wire fraud charge.

He could also be fined a maximum of $250,000 on each count.

Business owner underreported income

From the Daily News:

The owner of an Edible Arrangements store in Queens has admitted to gorging himself on tax money, prosecutors said Thursday.

Maurice Letman, 42, of Springfield Gardens, pleaded guilty to lining his pockets with $185,000 forbidden fruit — money that should have gone to the city and state.

“Sales taxes are meant for the public treasury — not to line the pockets of businessmen,” said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.

Letman has agreed to repay the full $185,000 plus interest and penalties.

He was charged last year with underreporting income from his Springfield Blvd. franchise of the popular fruit basket chain.

Grimm to plead guilty and may head to the pokey

From the Daily News:

After vowing to fight his criminal indictment “tooth and nail,” Rep. Michael Grimm of Staten Island has agreed to plead guilty Tuesday to a felony charge of tax evasion, the Daily News has learned.

Grimm’s admission of guilt will place his congressional career in danger, exactly seven weeks after he won reelection by an overwhelming margin.

Grimm was scheduled to enter the plea Tuesday before Judge Pamela Chen in Brooklyn Federal Court.

A Republican who served in the Marines and worked as an FBI agent, Grimm was charged in a 20-count federal indictment in April with hiding more than $1 million in sales and wages at an Upper East Side restaurant he co-owned, and with hiring undocumented immigrants.

He pleaded not guilty, and his trial was to begin in February.

Despite the indictment, Grimm trounced Democrat Domenic Recchia 55% to 42% on Nov. 4 to win a third term.

Recchia made the criminal case a central issue of his campaign, and at a debate on Oct. 17, Grimm was asked, “If found guilty, would you resign?”

“Certainly, if I was not able to serve, then of course I would step aside and there would be a special election,” he replied.

But if he can escape prison time, Grimm is expected to try to hold onto his seat, arguing he would still be “able to serve,” a source familiar with his thinking said.

Under federal law, Grimm faces up to three years behind bars on the tax evasion charge. As a first-time offender, however, he might not have to serve any time. That decision will be up to Chen when she sentences him sometime next year.

If Grimm is spared prison and refuses to resign, it would up to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to decide whether to force him to step down.

Carnival company admits they bribed Monserrate

From the Daily News:

A Bronx-based carnival company has quietly pleaded guilty to bribing ex-State Sen. Hiram Monserrate in exchange for help in securing permits for a festival in his Queens district, the Daily News has learned.

Monserrate was never charged in the carnival scheme because of a confluence of events — he was indicted in an unrelated corruption case, the FBI’s carnival investigation expanded to catch another elected official, and the cooperating witness who allegedly delivered the $7,000 payoff to Monserrate died, sources said.

The five-year statute of limitations expired last month, so Monserrate’s in the clear.

Last month in Brooklyn Federal Court, Tommy’s Midway Inc., a traveling carnival operator, pleaded guilty to the bribery conspiracy in a deal worked out with prosecutors.

The company’s officers, Thomas and Madeline Murray, were not charged. The company’s lawyer did not return a call seeking comment.

7-11 owners plead guilty to fraud

From CBS 2:

Five people have pleaded guilty to charges that they exploited undocumented immigrant workers at 7-11 franchises they operated in New York and Virginia.

Prosecutors say Farrukh Baig, Malik Yousaf, Bushra Baig, Shahnawaz Baig, and Zahid Baig pleaded guilty Monday at the federal courthouse on Long Island.

They pleaded guilty to wire fraud and concealing and harboring illegal immigrants. Prosecutors say the defendants agreed to forfeit franchise rights to 10 stores in New York and four in Virginia.

Prosecutors say the defendants hired illegal immigrants and used stolen IDs to swindle more than $2.6 million in wages from the workers.
As part of the guilty plea, the defendants also agreed to forfeit five houses they owned. The homes are valued at over $1.3 million.

Assembly Member turns out to be illegal alien

From the NY Times:

A New York assemblywoman in her first term became the latest state lawmaker to be forced out of office as she pleaded guilty on Friday to two felonies in Federal District Court in Manhattan.

The assemblywoman, Gabriela Rosa of Manhattan, unlike some of her convicted colleagues, was not accused of bribery; she was undone by making false statements, including one concerning a fraudulent marriage that she admitted was part of an immigration scheme.

Ms. Rosa told Judge Denise Cote that she had gotten married some years ago to “regularize my immigration status.”

“I married this person and it was not a real marriage,” she said.

Prosecutors said that around 1996, Ms. Rosa, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, paid a United States citizen about $8,000 to enter into “a sham marriage” while she was in a relationship with a man she would later marry; she ended the sham marriage a few years later. In subsequent submissions to the immigration authorities, she falsely represented that her marriage had been bona fide, the government said.

Ms. Rosa pleaded guilty to two counts of making false statements, to immigration authorities and in a bankruptcy proceeding. As part of her plea, Ms. Rosa agreed to resign from the Assembly, where she had represented the 72nd Assembly District, which includes Washington Heights, Inwood and Marble Hill.

Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, said that Ms. Rosa’s crimes “cut to the heart of her legal qualification to serve the people of the State of New York as a New York State assemblywoman.”

“She gained the ability to run for that office only as a result of a yearslong immigration fraud, and then she compounded her lack of fitness to serve by defrauding a federal bankruptcy court,” Mr. Bharara said.

Ms. Rosa also admitted that she had received $1,000 from a representative of a foreign government in connection with her election to the Assembly, a violation of the campaign finance laws, and she agreed to return the money, her plea agreement says.

Although she faces a maximum of 10 years in prison when sentenced on Oct. 3, the plea agreement says that both sides have agreed that the recommended guideline range is 12 to 18 months.

Huntley in second guilty plea

From NY1:

Already awaiting sentencing on corruption charges, former Queens state senator Shirley Huntley admitted today she falsified documents to get state cash to a local non-profit group she founded.
It’s the former state legislator's second guilty plea in a month.

Huntley officially pleaded guilty to a felony count of tampering with physical evidence.

The charges were brought by State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.

Huntley said she doctored records to try to ensure a sham nonprofit received state money for so-called educational programs.

That funding allegedly went into the pockets of Huntley’s niece and her aide.

In January, the former senator also pleaded guilty to fraud in federal court.

She will be sentenced there in April.

Huntley pleads guilty in tweeding scheme

From Capital Tonight:

As expected, former Queens Sen. Shirley Huntley has pleaded guilty to a mail fraud charge stemming from her embezzlement over a three-year period of $87,700 from Parents Information Network, Inc. – a nonprofit that received public funds to (ostensibly) help educate parents about the New York City public school system.

According to US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta E. Lynch, Huntley stole the money between October 2005 and October 2008, and falsely certified to the state that the cash would be used, and had been used, to support PIN’s charitable mission.

Instead, Huntley used the money for her own personal benefit and for the benefit of her family members and associates.

Lynch said Huntley ran the nonprofit and controlled its finances. She stole from the organization by writing over $21,000 in checks from the PIN account to herself and a family member.

The former senator used $500 of PIN funds to pay her personal credit card bill and embezzled more than $34,000 from PIN through ATM withdrawals, Lynch said.

Huntley also embezzled funds from PIN by using straw recipients, who posed as legitimate recipients of payments from PIN. She wrote checks for $24,500 to the straw recipients, who cashed the checks and returned substantially all of the funds to Huntley in cash.

In her plea agreement with the government, Huntley agreed to make restitution of $87,700 to the state Department of Education for the funds she embezzled. In addition, Huntley also agreed to make restitution of $1,000 in connection with an unrelated bribery scheme involving a cargo-handling business at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The guilty plea took place before U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein. When sentenced, Huntley faces up to five years of imprisonment and a fine of $250,000, in addition to restitution.

Huntley to plead guilty

From the NY Post:

Former New York state Sen. Shirley Huntley is planning to plead guilty to mail fraud charges in a new federal case leveled against her, The Post has learned.

The Queens Democrat is expected to admit that she used funds from a non-profit organization to benefit herself and family members, a source said.

The embattled ex-legislator was indicted originally on Aug. 27 by state authorities on charges that she falsified documents to conceal the fact that her niece and an aide allegedly siphoned $30,000 from a sham charity she created. She pleaded not guilty to those state charges.

But Brooklyn federal prosecutors working in the US Attorney's Office's public corruption unit quietly opened a mail fraud case against Huntley — and now she is poised to surrender to authorities soon with the intention of entering a guilty plea, sources said.

A spokesman for the US Attorney's Office in Brooklyn declined to comment on the case against Huntley.

Terrorist pleads guilty

From the Queens Courier:

A Queens man pleaded guilty in New York State Court to charges related to a plot to blow up Manhattan religious institutions, including the largest synagogue in the borough, the Manhattan district attorney’s office announced Tuesday.

Ahmed Ferhani, 27, who was charged with weapon possession, sale of a firearm and conspiracy, is the first person to be convicted of terrorism crimes in a state court since New York anti-terror laws were passed following the September 11 attacks.

Ferhani was arrested in May 2011 after an eight-month undercover operation by the NYPD and investigation by the DA’s office.

According to court documents and his guilty plea, Ferhani planned to bomb Manhattan churches and synagogues to “send a message of violence to ‘non Muslims’,” said the DA’s office.

He told an undercover detective that he wanted to bomb the largest synagogue in Manhattan using grenades or by dressing up as Jewish worshippers and leaving an explosive device inside the building.

Ferhani also told the detective that he wanted to buy guns and was selling drugs to fund the terrorism acts.

He is expected to be sentenced on January 30.

Jimmy Meng pleads guilty

From the NY Post:

The first Asian-American elected to New York's state legislature is scheduled to plead guilty this afternoon to charges stemming from a federal bribery case, sources told The Post.

Former state Assemblyman Jimmy Meng, 68, had promised to pay off Manhattan prosecutors who were pursuing a tax fraud case against a Meng associate, the feds say.

Meng — who represented Flushing from 2005 to 2006 — solicited $80,000 in bribes from the associate while promising he could make the case disappear, officials said.

Brooklyn federal prosecutors say that Meng directed the man to place $80,000 in cash into a fruit basket that Meng would send someone to collect.

In late July, the man - who secretly had become an FBI informant - drove to Meng’s Queens lumber yard with a fruit basket containing several thousand dollars, prosecutors said. Meng took it and was arrested by the FBI.

Meng's arrest this Summer marked the broadening of a probe by a team of Brooklyn federal prosecutors and FBI agents that is focusing on public corruption in southeast Queens.