Showing posts with label preet bharara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label preet bharara. Show all posts

Saturday, March 11, 2017

Preet asked to resign in the middle of major investigations

From NY1:

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has been asked to resign, along with 45 other prosecutors, as part of a nationwide purge of the Justice Department. But whether the hard-charging federal prosecutor will step down is unclear.

There are some possibilities here. One is that Bharara does not get any special treatment and he is out and he just had not accepted it yet.

Another possibility is that Bharara stays because sometime soon he is asked to re-apply for his position, or the president does not accept his resignation if it is offered. Two U.S. attorneys are being told that their resignations would not be accepted. One has been nominated for a top Justice Department position, and the other is in that spot now.

A third possibility for Bharara is that he dangles for a bit. It is possible that Bharara is something of a pawn in a battle between the Trump and Schumer. The president may be threatening to fire Bharara to get Schumer to speed up approvals of his nominees.

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

"Don't hurt my re-election chances" - de Blasio

From the Wall Street Journal:

In the wake of the presidential election last fall, lawyers for Mr. de Blasio expressed concerns to federal prosecutors about the lengthy nature of their probe and its potential proximity to the mayoral election cycle, requesting that, if possible, prosecutors bring any charges in coming weeks, so the investigation wouldn’t linger into the year of his re-election bid, according to people familiar with the matter.

As part of that effort, Mr. de Blasio’s lawyers urged prosecutors to question the mayor and any relevant aides as soon as possible, these people said.

A spokesman for Mr. Bharara declined to comment.

The probe, of course, has stretched well into Mr. de Blasio’s re-election year, and threatens to extend into campaign season. While public-corruption prosecutors often are mindful that their work may be seen as politicized, many are particularly sensitive to how their decisions might be viewed after Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey endured criticism last year for taking public actions concerning the FBI’s investigation of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton days before the November election, people familiar with the office said.

The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office takes into consideration the electoral context of any investigations and possible charges, said Daniel Stein, who was the office’s chief of the criminal division until November 2016, speaking generally about the office’s practices.

“Prosecutors would not bring a case, or close an investigation, before it makes sense to do so,” Mr. Stein said. “But where they can, prosecutors will try to do their work in a way that does not allow an investigation to cloud a candidate or unfairly affect a campaign.”

Around City Hall, some have suggested that if federal prosecutors decide against charging the mayor or any of his aides or allies, they should say so publicly. Such pronouncements, however, are rare.

Friday, February 24, 2017

Today's the day

From CBS 2:

Mayor Bill de Blasio will be questioned by federal prosecutors and the FBI on Friday, CBS2 has confirmed.

CBS2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer confirmed through multiple sources Thursday night that de Blasio will be interviewed about the fundraising scandal that has swirled around the Mayor’s office for nearly a year.

The meeting will take place at the office of de Blasio’s attorney, Barry H. Berke of Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & Frankel, Kramer confirmed.

As CBS2’s Dick Brennan reported, sources said de Blasio’s team has agreed to meet with prosecutors for four hours tomorrow to answer questions.

CBS2 is told the interview was set originally set for two weeks ago, but was postponed until Friday.

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

De Blasio gets a concession from Preet

From the NY Times:

Mayor Bill de Blasio will probably be on familiar ground when he is questioned by federal prosecutors and F.B.I. agents in New York as part of a sweeping criminal investigation into his campaign fund-raising.

It was unclear when exactly the interview would take place, but it was expected to be conducted in a conference room at offices of Mr. de Blasio’s lawyer’s firm in Midtown Manhattan, people with knowledge of the matter have said, not in the offices of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan. It was expected that the interview would last about four hours, the people said.

The parameters of the session took shape after extensive negotiations between prosecutors and the mayor’s lawyer, Barry H. Berke, the people said, and it was possible that some details could change.

It is unusual for federal prosecutors to question a subject of a criminal investigation in the offices of the subject’s lawyer. Such sessions, which can become contentious, are almost always conducted in the prosecutor’s offices. It was unclear why the federal prosecutors agreed to hold the meeting at the Kramer Levin offices.


Let's hope it's because the case against him is so good that it doesn't matter where the inquiry is held. In the meantime, Emma Wolfe is absent and a lot of people at City Hall are shitting a brick.

Saturday, January 28, 2017

DeBlasio and Preet to meet


From NBC:

NBC 4 has learned Mayor DeBlasio has agreed to discuss a corruption probe with federal prosecutors. Melissa Russo reports.

Friday, December 16, 2016

It's gone to the grand jury!

From the Daily News:

Federal and state grand juries have begun hearing testimony in criminal investigations of Mayor de Blasio’s fund-raising.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is said to be presenting evidence in a probe of how de Blasio collected large sums of money for a since disbanded nonprofit organization called the Campaign for One New York.

The New York Times reported that Bharara's panel is examining whether the mayor or aides gave donors helpful city action in exchange for contributions in a half dozen matters. An explicit quid-pro-quo or excessive pressure to donate would be federal felonies.

Separately, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. has issued subpoenas and taken witness testimony in connection with additional large sums raised by de Blasio’s team in an attempt to switch the state Senate from Republican to Democratic control through upstate elections.

Vance is focused on whether de Blasio's routing of the money constituted an end-run misdemeanor violation of the state election law.

Thursday, December 8, 2016

All eyes on Preet

From the NY Post:

The sense that Bharara’s final shoe is about to drop is especially keen because he filed related corruption charges against businessmen, police officers, a hedge fund manager and the head of the correction officers’ union.

And with subpoenas served months ago on City Hall, de Blasio deputies, some consultants and donors, it is clear that Bharara is aiming at a substantial target.

That could be why the prosecutor recently agreed after an unusual meeting with President-elect Donald Trump to stay on past the end of the Obama administration.

While the extension removes any immediate pressure, it can’t be a license to drag out the investigation deep into the election season. With all reasonable dispatch, Bharara should make his case, one way or another, sooner rather than later.

Friday, September 23, 2016

Preet nails Cuomo donors

From The Buffalo News:

A massive pay-to-play scheme involving alleged bid rigging of state contracts involving hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money was outlined by federal prosecutors Thursday in a case that targets longtime advisers and major donors of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s case alleges bribery, extortion and tax evasion. It also muddies a picture of ethical cleanliness that Cuomo has sought to portray of his administration since taking office in 2011.

Bharara, the prosecutor who has brought high-profile and successful cases against a lineup of state legislators, said Albany’s plague of corruption has now touched the executive branch of government.

“I really do hope that there’s a trial in this case so all New Yorkers can see in gory detail what their state government has been up to,” Bharara said in unveiling the Justice Department’s case against nine people, including Cuomo advisers Joseph Percoco and Todd R. Howe, and Alain E. Kaloyeros, president of SUNY Polytechnic Institute.

Louis P. Ciminelli, the Buffalo developer who is chairman and CEO of LPCiminelli, also is accused in the pay-to-play scheme. But allegations stretch across the state

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Toby has some interesting campaign donors

From the Observer:

Queens State Senator Toby Stavisky—the ranking member of the Committee on Higher Education—has raked in tens of thousands of dollars in donations from for-profit colleges, one of tied to a bribery scandal that took down an assemblyman from her home borough in 2009.

Stavisky has taken more than $23,000 in contributions from Forest Hills’ Plaza College, its owners and its affiliates since 2002—$18,500 of it since federal agents arrested the late Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio on corruption charges related to the school in 2008. One of the affiliates that gave to Stavisky, Collegiate Management Associates—which U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara labeled a “shell company”—served as a conduit for Plaza College provost Charles Callahan III to funnel $170,350 in bribes to Seminerio in exchange for legislation favorable to the for-profit institution.

Bharara’s criminal complaint against Seminerio also alleged the assemblyman unsuccessfully sought to get Callahan III appointed to the state Board of Regents, which controls New York’s public schools, and assisted him in navigating various agencies.

Collegiate Management Associates gave Stavisky $1,000 in August 2014. She took another grand from the college itself that October, $1,000 again in 2015, and reported taking the same amount from the school in her filings last month.

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Serial bank robbers caught


From the Daily News:

Three men — including the son of a slain Gambino foot soldier — were arrested Tuesday morning for brazenly raiding $5 million in cash and valuables from several New York City bank vaults, officials said.

The crew — composed of Michael Mazzara, 44, Charles Kerrigan, 40, and Anthony Mascuzzio, 36 — used a gas welding torch to cut through the banks’ roofs and vaults.

The burglars pocketed money and items such as jewelry and baseball cards, many of which were heirlooms Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's office said in a criminal complaint.

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Bharara investigating de Blasio link to sale of closed hospital

From the Daily News:

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is looking into Mayor de Blasio’s involvement in the sale of Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, the Daily News has learned.

Bharara's office recently issued a subpoena to the State University of New York, which had owned the hospital, seeking all communications between the university system and City Hall regarding the sale of LICH dating to Jan. 2, 2014, when de Blasio took office, said two sources familiar with the matter.

One source close to SUNY confirmed the subpoena and said “the clear target seems to be de Blasio.” But the specifics of what Bharara is looking into were unclear.

The subpoena specifically seeks emails and other communication from de Blasio and top aides Tony Shorris, Emma Wolfe, Dominic Williams, Avi Fink and Henry Berger, the two sources said.

It also seeks all communication regarding the hospital dating to 2013 between SUNY and de Blasio’s campaign and his fundraiser Ross Offinger, as well as various groups tied to the mayor such as the Campaign For One New York, UPKNYC, and United for Affordable NYC, the sources said.

The subpoena demands emails and other communication between SUNY and de Blasio from 2013, when he was the city’s public advocate, they said.

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Multiple investigations into de Blasio fundraising


From the NY Post:

Mayor de Blasio and his top aides coordinated an illegal fundraising scheme to help elect Democrats to the state Senate in 2014, the top investigator at the state Board of Elections accuses in a blockbuster memo that recommends the DA investigate City Hall.

In the damning eight-page report, delivered to the elections board on Jan.4, enforcement chief Risa Sugarman said the actions of the mayor, his political team and his state democratic allies led to “willful and flagrant violations” of state law.

“I have determined that reasonable cause exists to believe a violation warranting criminal prosecution has taken place,” Sugarman wrote in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Post.


From the Daily News:

The commissioners, during a closed-door vote, made the referral on Jan. 11, sources said, which is now part of a broader probe by the DA and Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office.

Sugarman’s memo paints a picture of a coordinated effort by the mayor and his allies — dubbed interchangeably as “Team de Blasio” and “Team Coordinated” — to deliberately circumvent legal campaign donation limits in three upstate races in what turned out to be an unsuccessful effort to help Democrats win control of the state Senate in 2014.

The memo did not spell out exactly who could be charged. Deliberately evading campaign donation limits would constitute a felony.

Unions like the powerful Service Employees International Union Local 1199, SEIU 32BJ, the state Nurse's Association, and the Communications Workers of America were among those who gave big amounts to the county committees though they never had before. Developers and powerful businessmen who had business before the city like supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis ($50,000) and Alexis Lodde ($100,000) also gave mega contributions to the county committees.

Sugarman wrote that by serving as “straw donors” that simply passed through the donations to the candidate campaigns, the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee and the two county committees may have also violated the law.


From the Daily News:

A key donor to Mayor de Blasio’s fund-raising was subpoenaed Thursday, as it became clear the growing investigation is zeroing in on whether his campaign broke rules pursuing checks from powerful interests seeking favors from City Hall, the Daily News has learned.

The Manhattan U.S. attorney and the Manhattan district attorney both demanded documents from an anti-horse carriage group that has steered hundreds of thousands of dollars to de Blasio in its effort to ban buggies from Central Park, according to a source familiar with the probe.

Supporters of that group, New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets, NYCLASS, have written checks totaling $125,000 to Campaign for One New York, a so-called “independent spending” organization de Blasio formed to support his pet causes.

Late Thursday, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. demanded documents dating as far back as 2013 from the group, which steered $100,000 to Campaign for One New York in March 2015 and hundreds of thousands more to the mayor’s 2013 campaign.


From the Daily News:

On its face, it makes no sense.

A handful of sophisticated New York developers write big campaign checks to rural backwoods political committees miles upstate.

Upon closer inspection, however, it all becomes clear.

The developers were told the money wasn’t meant to help elect some yahoo constable in Moosebreath Corners, N.Y. Instead, it would help Mayor de Blasio in his quixotic quest to flip the GOP-controlled state Senate to the Democrats.

And the developers who chose to give just happened to be seeking — or had in the past received — lucrative benefits from the de Blasio administration such as zoning changes and tax breaks.

All of this is now under investigation by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.

Monday, February 8, 2016

Feds probing Sanders

From the NY Post:

A couple who run a small urban farm said powerful Queens lawmaker James Sanders offered them $1.7 million in taxpayer money to fund their operation — then demanded a $250,000 kickback.

Marion Moses and Malisa Rivera said they refused Sanders, then a city councilman, during a 2012 sit-down. Sanders, now a state senator running for Congress, became irate, and the couple believe their charity has been blacklisted by government officials ever since, they told The Post.

Three weeks ago, Moses filed a civilian crime report with the office of Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara. Sources said the feds were already investigating Sanders for steering City Council discretionary funds to other nonprofits.

Mike Duvalle, a former Sanders staffer, told The Post that he met with the FBI last month in connection with that probe.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Third man left standing

From NY Magazine:

The third man of Albany's three-men-in-a-room power bloc isn't going to face any charges. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced in a statement that there is “insufficient evidence” of illegality in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s decision to prematurely dissolve the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption in March 2014.

Cuomo himself had set up the Moreland Commission the preceding June. The investigative body was intended to look into the ways in which “housekeeping accounts,” which state legislators use for administrative expenses (and can accept unlimited donations), were being used. While it was active, the commission issued subpoenas to see how salaries were being paid at the law firms of both Dean Skelos and Sheldon Silver, who constituted two-thirds of Albany's infamous troika. By October, Cuomo had been accused of killing a subpoena aimed at his own New York State Democratic Party. The following March, Cuomo suddenly disbanded the commission, saying that stricter anti-bribery laws would accomplish the ethics reform Albany required.

Cuomo’s legal counsel, Elkan Abramowitz, responded to Bharara’s findings: “We were always confident there was no illegality here, and we appreciate the U.S. attorney clarifying this for the public record.”

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Dean is done

From the Queens Chronicle:

Less than two weeks after former Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver was convicted on bribery charges, his state Senate contemporary, former Majority Leader Dean Skelos, was found guilty of corruption on Friday.

The 67-year-old Skelos and his 33-year-old son, Adam, were convicted in Federal District Court on all charges, which included three counts of extortion under color of official right, two counts of soliciting bribes in connection with a federal program and one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud.

The father-son duo are facing up to 130 years in prison, according to reports, and will be sentenced early next year.

The elder Skelos allegedly used his position to get money into the pockets of his son. Among the allegations made by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are that Dean Skelos got a developer dependent on him for tax breaks to give Adam Skelos $20,000, and an environmental technology company seeking to do business with the state to give him $10,000 a month.

"The swift convictions of Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos beg an important question," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement, "how many prosecutions will it take before Albany gives the people of New York the honest government they deserve?"

Monday, December 7, 2015

Has anything really changed in Albany?

From the NY Post:

Albany remains happily submerged in the same pork-and-patronage sludge-pit that led to Silver’s downfall — as everybody stands around blinking.

In other words, business as usual; Bharara best not be counting on Albany to fix itself.

Yes, he’s done yeoman’s work. But it won’t be enough.

That’s because digging out corruption while ignoring the corrupters will never be enough.

Locking up a few enablers, on the other hand, probably would help. It certainly couldn’t hurt.

Bharara has made it clear that his work is far from over. So there’s still time to broaden its scope — that is, to bust a few johns.

Here’s hoping. At this stage, the only real reform resides in fear.

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Oxy suppliers shut down


From NBC:

A pharmacist, her husband and another man have been accused of hawking oxycodone out of a pair of New York City storefronts in a multi-million dollar drug scheme, authorities say.

The scheme was run out of two pharmacies, both named "Chopin Chemists" in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and Ridgewood, Queens, both owned by the pharmacist, sources said. The pharmacist, Lilian Wieckowski, and her husband, Marcin Jakacki, allegedly conspired to sell the drugs out of the two pharmacies "any way they could," according to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

"We've shut down one of the largest pill mills in the city," Bharara said.

Authorities say they began investigating Wieckowski's pharmacies after a civil audit revealed that the Brooklyn pharmacy was requesting more oxycodone from drug makers than anywhere else in the zip code -- which included several large, nationwide pharmacy chains. One year, Bharara said, Chopin Chemists in Greenpoint requested more than 250,000 more pills than the next pharmacy.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Crooked ex-Council Member to forfeit pension

From the Daily News:

Crooked former New York City Councilman Larry Seabrook must cough up his public pension payments to satisfy the $418,252 judgment against him, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara recently moved to seize Seabrook's state and city pensions because he had yet to pay a cent of the forfeiture order.

The 63-year-old Seabrook, who also served as a state assemblyman and senator, had argued against the move, saying state law protected his taxpayer-funded pensions.

But U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel said federal law took precedence over state statutes.

Monday, May 4, 2015

Feds closing in on Skelos

From the Daily News:

Federal prosecutors are expected to announce criminal charges against state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son as early as Monday, sources told the Daily News.

Prosecutors from U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s office have been investigating the Long Island Republican and his son, Adam Skelos, regarding a possible conflict of interest and violations of federal corruption statutes.

The two could be hit with corruption and other charges tied to a lucrative contract awarded to an Arizona-based engineering firm that once employed Adam Skelos, 32, as a consultant, a source familiar with the matter told The News.

The company, AbTech, won the contract even though it was not the low bidder, and the feds were trying to determine whether Sen. Skelos played a role.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office declined to comment on the matter.

The FBI did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.