Skelos gets 4 years

From Newsday:

Former State Senate Republican powerbroker Dean Skelos and his son Adam both unexpectedly won reduced sentences in Manhattan federal court Wednesday for their corruption convictions in a retrial of charges the senator shook down companies to get $300,000 in jobs and fees for Adam.

U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood, who sentenced the father and son to prison terms of 5 and 6-1/2 years in 2016 for their later-reversed convictions on the same extortion conspiracy charges, cut Dean Skelos’ sentence to 4 years 3 months and Adam’s to 4 years in the wake of their July retrial.

Despite the reductions, the judge said she wanted the sentences of the two Long Island men to send a message that would reverberate in Albany, where ethical missteps and indictments have become a routine occurrence in recent years.

Silver gets 7 years

From PIX11:

Former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has been sentenced to seven years in prison for public corruption, U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni announced Friday at a court in Manhattan.

Silver was once among Albany's most powerful Democrats until he was felled by a corruption scandal.

He was initially found guilty in 2015 of pocketing $4 million illegally by collecting fees from a cancer researcher and real estate developer.

His conviction and 12-year prison sentence were thrown out by an appeals court, but the 74-year-old fared no better at a second trial in May.

In a pre-sentence submission, Silver said he was filled with shame and feared he would die in prison.

Weiner sentenced to 21 months in the clink

From Daily Intelligencer:

When U.S. District Judge Denise Cote gave him an opportunity to make a statement, Weiner sounded remorseful: “I was a very sick man for a very long time,” Weiner said, his voice breaking as he read from a written statement that made no excuses for the pain he caused. “I stand before you because I victimized a young person who deserved better.” He hoped that a sentence in the community rather than behind bars would be good for his son, Jordan, whom he called his “salvation,” as well as others who may be struggling and needing counsel for the same ills that destroyed him.

The federal government wanted between 21 and 27 months. Cote chose the low end of that recommendation.

When Cote imposed her sentence, Weiner’s head fell and he placed his left hand over his head. The courtroom cleared quickly, and several reporters ran outside to recover their electronic devices and report the news. The usual throng of television crews and cameras swarmed the outside of the federal courthouse on Worth Street, awaiting the defendant’s exit.

Summer Friday caption contest

From the NY Post:

​Disgraced​ former​ ​Queens city councilman Ruben Wills cried like a baby as he was sentenced to two to six years in prison Thursday for looting public coffers​, pleading for leniency and maintaining his innocence to the end.

Wills, who was stripped of his title at sentencing, was ordered to pay almost $33,000 in res​​titution after a jury found him guilty of pocketing some $30,000 in city funds.

The normally well-heeled politician arrived in court in jogging duds and blue sneakers–and bawled as he begging the judge for leniency, claiming he’d done nothing wrong.

“Do not incarcerate me,” Wills begged. “I maintain my innocence and disagree with the verdict.”

“I did those things to enrich the community,” the typically cocky man said through sobs, at times crying so hard he was unintelligible. “I cannot justify that I did something wrong.”

“In my entire life I’ve never taken anything from anyone,” he blubbered. “My purpose from birth is I am an advocate.”

The still-teary pol then turned to his wife, and apologized for not spending more time with her “because I was out in the streets helping people and praying for people.”

Defense attorney Kevin O’Donnell also asked the judge for mercy, saying “very few people have given more to the community than Ruben Wills.”

“Show him some mercy, some compassion,” the lawyer implored, adding that jail would bankrupt his client and leave him unable to pay restitution. “I’m just asking you, judge, that you do the right thing and let him do community service. Nobody wins by him going to jail.”

“I have no doubt that you have done some good things in the community,” Queens Supreme Court Judge Ira Margulis told the whimpering lawmaker. “However you are convicted for stealing from state and city agencies.”

Margulis then slapped the disgraced pol with a $5,000 fine on top of everything else, and ordered him cuffed.

So there you have it. Now caption that photo!

Chinese spy headed to prison

From Metro:

A former FBI employee in New York was sentenced to two years in prison on Friday after admitting that he illegally acted at the direction of a Chinese official to gather sensitive information.

Kun Shan Chun, also known as Joey Chun, was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in Manhattan to pay $10,000 after pleading guilty in August to having illegally acted as an agent of a foreign government.

"I'm so sorry," a tearful Chun said in court. "I take full responsibility."

Chun, a U.S. citizen who was born in China, was arrested in March in connection with what prosecutors called a duplicitous betrayal of the FBI, which had employed him in its New York field office since 1997.

Prosecutors said that beginning in 2005, Chinese individuals claiming to be affiliated with a China-based printer products manufacturer called Zhuhai Kolion Technology Company Ltd solicited an investment from one of Chun's parents.

Chun, 47, first met purported Kolion associates during a 2005 trip, and met them abroad at several other times, eventually meeting a Chinese official who asked him about the FBI and surveillance practices and targets, prosecutors said.

In turn, Chun provided the official an FBI organizational chart and photographs related to surveillance technologies, prosecutors said.

In exchange, Chun's associates paid for him to go on international trips, and they sometimes also paid for prostitutes for him while he was abroad, prosecutors said.

Sampson sent up the river

From AM-NY:

Former New York State Senate leader John Sampson was sentenced to 5 years in prison Wednesday for lying and obstructing justice to cover up his misuse of escrow money as a private lawyer.

Brooklyn U.S. District Judge Dora Irizarry also imposed a $75,000 fine on the former Democratic leader from Canarsie whose 2015 conviction was one in a string of corruption cases that have rocked Albany.

Sampson, 51, had allegedly misused $440,000 in escrow money to help finance a political campaign for district attorney in Brooklyn, then did favors for Edul Ahmad, a local businessman who gave him $188,000 to help cover up the misuse of funds.

He was not convicted of those charges but was convicted of lying to the FBI and recruiting a childhood friend, Sam Noel, who worked for the Brooklyn U.S. attorney’s office, as a mole to keep track of an investigation of Ahmad, who he feared might become an informant.

Deed fraud scammer gets a year in the pen

From the Daily News:

An ex-con who stole an elderly woman’s Queens home now has a new place to crash — in the big house.

Darrell Beatty, 51, was sentenced to one year behind bars for his cunning con in which he used a phony deed to move into Jennifer Merin’s Laurelton home.

Merin, 72, said the ordeal — which required she jump through a slew of bureaucratic hoops before getting Beatty evicted — had caused her so much stress she had a heart attack in August.

"This crime has ripped my heart out, squashed my spirit, and left me in financial ruins. It has turned my life upside down I am 72 years old, and I am forced to begin building my life again,” she said before Beatty was sentenced.

“(My) home has been desecrated. It no longer exists, and I am bereft, heart broken, devastated. I am afraid to go on the property ... I have been in a constant state of inescapable and overwhelming fear, anguish, depression, and the daunting stress of financial duress.”

Beatty, who showed up late for his sentencing, did not address the court. His attorney declined comment.

Justice Michael Aloise, who recommended Beatty not be eligible for parole, called Merin’s statement “one of the most sincere and compelling I've ever heard.”

Scarborough sentenced to a year in the pokey

From Crains:

A former longtime state assemblyman from New York City has been sentenced to 13 months in jail on federal fraud and theft charges for submitting false expense vouchers for days he didn't actually travel to Albany.

Queens Democrat William Scarborough, who pleaded guilty and resigned his Assembly seat in May, admitted in federal court that he submitted at least $40,000 in false expense vouchers.

Apologizing on Monday, he says this is the result of his own stupidity.

He was also ordered to pay a federal penalty of $54,355.

Smith & Tabone receive their sentences

From Capital New York:

Former New York state senator Malcolm Smith was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison after being convicted of trying to bribe his way onto the Republican ballot in the 2013 race for New York City mayor.

Smith, a Democrat and the former Senate majority leader, was convicted in February of wire fraud, bribery and extortion.

Co-defendant Vincent Tabone, a Republican party leader in Queens who was convicted of taking a bribe from an undercover FBI agent, was sentenced to 42 months in prison.

“Bribes and kickbacks should never play a role in the selection of candidates for public office,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. “By attempting to buy and sell a spot on New York City’s mayoral ballot, Malcolm Smith and Vincent Tabone corrupted one of the most fundamental tenets of the democratic process, that candidates cannot bribe their way onto a ballot.”

10 years in the slammer for Halloran

From the NY Post:

Saying former City Councilman Dan Halloran knowingly perjured himself at trial, a federal judge threw the book at the disgraced politician on Wednesday — sentencing him to 10 years behind bars for masterminding a failed $200,000 bribery scheme to buy the 2013 Republican mayoral line for then-Democratic state Sen. Malcolm Smith.

“For five days, he lied on the stand,” White Plains federal Judge Kenneth Karas said of Halloran. “It was egregious.

“There was overwhelming evidence of his guilt,” added the judge as a stone-faced Halloran took a deep breath and nodded. “I saw him squirm and look uncomfortable on the stand … He lied and lied repeatedly. It was grotesque and offensive.”

The US Probation Department had recommended 6 ½ to 8 years of prison for Halloran, who tried to claim insanity as a defense at trial and is a “prince” in a pagan order that includes public floggings.

But Karas agreed with prosecutors that the Queens Republican deserved a harsher sentence because he “quarterbacked” the bribery scheme and lied under oath. The feds had asked Karas to hand Halloran a sentence of 12 ½ to 15 ½ years behind bars.

From the Daily News:

At that Halloran turned red in the face and put his quivering hand over his mouth.

From the Queens Courier:

“His life, except for this offense, has been good,” Edelstein said. “Obviously there’s a crime here that requires punishment, but all of his character should be considered.”

“He’s very sorry he made these choices. He’s very sorry he ran for City Council in the first place,” he said.

18 months for Baldeo

From Capital New York:

Albert Baldeo, a former City Council candidate and Queens district leader, was sentenced Monday to 18 months in federal prison for tampering with witnesses during investigations into his failed 2010 campaign for Council.

Baldeo allegedly provided a number of straw donors with funds to donate to his 2010 campaign. When he discovered the F.B.I. was investigating, he pushed the donors not to cooperate with the investigation and to provide false information.

He went so far as to make complaints to the city’s buildings department about properties owned by the family of one of the donors, according to Bharara's office.

Baldeo keeps evading sentencing

From The Forum:

Albert Baldeo, the Ozone Park attorney, activist and candidate for public office who was convicted in federal court in August of seven counts of obstructing justice in a campaign-related case, was supposed to have been sentenced on Wednesday, Jan. 21, at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Federal Courthouse in Manhattan.

However, as a Jan. 25 letter from Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, to presiding Judge Paul Crotty detailed, the sentencing has been delayed numerous times for what Bharara has deemed suspicious health-related circumstances.

“The Government is concerned both that (a) the defendant is faking or exaggerating his alleged medical problems in order to delay sentencing and/or support an argument at sentencing for leniency, and (b) the defendant may be seeking to hide his location, so to as complicate or defeat the ability of Pretrial Services to supervise him, and the ability of law enforcement to ensure that he does not seek to flee prior to sentencing,” Bharara stated in the missive, which he indicated was sent to Crotty “to provide an update to the Court regarding the continued self-hospitalization of the defendant…and to ask the Court to order certain measures in light of recent developments.”

Illegal alien assemblywoman sentenced to prison

From Crains:

A former state lawmaker accused of buying an $8,000 sham marriage to gain citizenship was sentenced Friday to a year in prison by a judge who said pursuit of the American dream was a poor excuse for her actions.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote ignored requests for leniency so that 47-year-old Gabriela Rosa, a native of the Dominican Republic, could care for her son and her mother.

The judge said she found "troubling" suggestions that Rosa was merely naive or was following the American dream when she falsely married a U.S. citizen and then lied about it to become a citizen in 2005.

Rosa's lawyer, Genesis A. Peduto, told the judge her client got married to obtain a green card 20 years ago when she was following the American dream and "looking for a better life."

"Are you suggesting that committing marriage fraud, which in this case meant paying $8,000 to another person and lying to immigration officials for years, is the American dream?" the judge asked.

"Not at all, your honor," Judge Peduto responded. "She is very remorseful for what she did and has accepted responsibility for what she has done."

The federal Probation Department recommended no prison sentence, but Cote disagreed, saying written submissions on Ms. Rosa's behalf included "very troubling suggestions" that the crime resulted in part because Rosa was following the American dream.

She said the suggestions were a "disservice to all our immigrants who actually try to follow the law and gain citizenship legitimately."

A round of applause for the judge.

He'll be pimpin' in prison now

From the NY Post:

A Queens man was sentenced to life behind bars Wednesday for running a sex-slavery ring that lured young Mexican women to the Big Apple and New Jersey and forced them into prostitution.

Manhattan federal Judge Katherine Forrest also ordered Isaias Flores-Mendez, 42, to forfeit $1.7 million to the government and pay $84,000 in restitution to the victims of his crime.

Prosecutors say some of the women were driven to rural New Jersey to have sex with up to 25 farm workers a day. Others were confined to dingy New York brothels that advertised their services with business cards passed out on local street corners. The scheme began in 1999.

CB1 member headed to the pokey

From Astoria Post:

An Astoria man who conned 14 victims by taking their deposits on an apartment that wasn’t available pleaded guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny earlier this month.

Mario Lalicata, a former teacher and community board one member, was sentenced to four months in prison and five years probation.

Lalicata, dubbed by some as the ‘landlord from Hell,’ would lure his victims with an ad on Craigslist for an apartment located at 25-55 48th Street, the same building where he lived.

He would show the victims the apartment and then ask for a security deposit, the first month’s rent and–in some cases–money to make improvements. Then, according to the district attorneys office, Lalicata would become harder and harder to get in touch with, until eventually he could not be reached.

Who kept reappointing this guy to CB1?

Liu furious at friends' prison sentences

From the Politicker:

City Comptroller John Liu is fuming after his former campaign treasurer and a fund-raiser were sentenced to prison terms by a judge earlier today.

“For reasons I may never fully understand, the U.S. Attorney’s Office set out to destroy me with what has been described as an extraordinarily intrusive and exhaustive investigation,” Mr. Liu said in a statement, which continued to defend Ms. Hou.

“Failing to find that I had done anything wrong, they proceeded to set up a weak man and a wonderful young woman. Jenny Hou does not deserve this ordeal and injustice she has been put through,” he contended. “I am very sad but even more angry at what has occurred. The U.S. Attorney’s Office was wrong and should not be proud of its conduct.”

According to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s office, Mr. Pan was sentenced to four months in prison while Ms. Hou was sentenced to 10 months. Both were assigned an additional three years of supervised release.

Pedro sent to the clink for 5 years

From CBS New York:

Former state Sen. Pedro Espada Jr., who pleaded guilty to tax fraud, was sentenced Friday to five years in prison.

Espada blew a kiss to supporters before deputy marshals took him out of courtroom. The once-influential politician was convicted previously in a separate case alleging he looted more than $500,000 from taxpayer-subsidized health clinics in the Bronx.

Espada founded and operated the Soundview Health Center for three decades until prosecutors accused him of turning the network into a personal ATM.

Prosecutors have said Espada spent some of the stolen funds on lobster dinners, the remodeling of his Westchester home, flowers for his wife and ponies for a grandchild’s birthday party.

Espada was apparently calm as he strutted into the courtroom on Friday, but that confidence was quickly erased as a judge handed the former Bronx State Senator five-years in jail. The sentence begins immediately, giving Espada no time to get his affairs in order.

Speaking before the sentence was handed down, Espada offered no signs of remorse.

Vegas is calling him

From the NY Post:

He may have crapped out at his fraud trial, but a crooked fund-raiser for embattled city Comptroller John Liu has a shot at hitting the jackpot in Las Vegas.

Xing Wu “Oliver” Pan yesterday won permission to spend eight days in Sin City before he gets sentenced for trying to scam the city’s Campaign Finance Board into matching funds from straw donors.

Manhattan federal Judge Richard Sullivan granted Pan’s request to jet out to the gambling mecca from July 28 through Aug. 5 after neither prosecutors nor his pretrial-services officer raised an objection.

Court papers say Pan, a real-estate developer from New Jersey, is heading west for unspecified “business purposes,” and defense lawyer Irwin Rochman refused to elaborate on the reason for the trip.

Shirley goes down swinging

From NY1:

Shirley Huntley would not speak to to reporters after her sentencing Thursday, but in court, she made a brief statement of apology, taking full responsibility for her actions.

Going outside of federal sentencing guidelines, which called for 18 to 24 months in prison, the judge sentenced Huntley to one year and one day and ordered her to repay the nearly $88,000 she admitted to stealing in a guilty plea, plus a $100 fine.

Despite her cooperation, the prosecutors declined to enter an agreement with Huntley because they found much of the information she provided to be "false, implausible and inconsistent."

In a passionate plea for leniency during the sentencing, Huntley's attorney told the judge that Huntley cooperated fully with the government and, as a result, the family has faced threats in their community. Huntley's husband told the judge that he was accosted this week outside a supermarket and warned that he would be "sorry" for his wife's cooperation.

Huntley's attorney went on to say that the former senator knew about a culture of corruption in Albany, and even claimed that bags of money were brought up in the state Senate elevators of the Capitol building.

The attorney said Huntley warned Governor Andrew Cuomo about pervasive corruption, and faced threats from current state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, whom she also accused of corruption.

Vito's sidekick gets probation

From the NY Post:

A political ally of embattled Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez got her wrist slapped yesterday for lying to the feds about her exorbitant pay for running a nonprofit Lopez founded.

Christiana Fisher was sentenced to a year of probation after pleading guilty to criminal contempt — a charge that carries up to a six-month jail sentence.

Manhattan federal Magistrate Judge James Francis IV — who cited Fisher’s “lifetime record of good works” — also ordered her to pay a $2,500 fine and forfeit the $170,000 in compensation at issue in the case.

Fisher admitted knowing documents given to the FBI falsely claimed the Ridgewood-Bushwick Senior Citizens Council board of directors had approved boosting her annual pay package to $782,000.

Fisher has served as campaign treasurer for Lopez, a council candidate and ex-Brooklyn Democratic boss. accused of sexually harassing female Assembly aides.

From the NY Times:

Prosecutors did not ask Judge Francis to send Ms. Fisher to jail, but requested in their own memorandum that he “recognize the seriousness of the offense.” An assistant United States attorney, Carrie H. Cohen, elaborated in court, saying that Ms. Fisher had not simply provided an untruthful answer when questioned unexpectedly, but had engaged in a more deliberate deceit.

“This is a case where the defendant created false compensation documents or got false compensation documents to be created,” she said. “She set in motion a very detailed and somewhat sophisticated fraud.”