Convicted pol listed on fundraiser invite

Invite by ColinCampbell

From the Politicker:

The Brooklyn Democratic Party’s party isn’t going to be as colorful as it once looked.

The invitation for the organization’s big fund-raising dinner, obtained by the Observer, lists the “Hon. William F. Boyland Jr.,” along with the likes of Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, the headliner honoree.

But Mr. Boyland isn’t especially honorable these days. The scion of a prominent Brownsville political family was expelled from the State Assembly last month following his conviction on a bevy of corruption charges.

Reached for comment, a Brooklyn Democratic spokesman said that Mr. Boyland’s inclusion on the invite was “erroneous” and that Mr. Boyland had lost his position in the county organization after his conviction.

Another one bites the dust

From the Politicker:

Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. has been convicted on federal corruption charges today, according to a spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch.

Mr. Boyland was convicted on all 21 counts accusing him of four schemes, including a top count of attempted extortion while serving as an elected official.

The Brownsville assemblyman, hailing from one of Brooklyn’s most prominent political families, was indicted on corruption charges previously but was found not guilty.

Now that Mr. Boyland has been convicted, he will be expelled from his chamber, and his seat will remain vacant until Gov. Andrew Cuomo calls a special election–which he has been reluctant to do–or until the next election. Multiple candidates have already declared their intentions to run for the seat.

Mr. Boyland was immediately taken into custody, according to the New York Post. The assemblyman faces up to the 30 years behind bars.

Corrupt Albany pols seem to like liquor

From The Politicker:

Brooklyn State Senator John Sampson, already facing corruption charges, is facing a new set of allegations from federal prosecutors this afternoon involving lying and a local liquor store.

The U.S. Attorney’s office today announced that Mr. Sampson, who once led the Senate Democrats, is accused of “making false statements to FBI agents about directing members of his Senate staff to take actions to benefit a Brooklyn liquor store in which Sampson secretly held an ownership interest.”

According to prosecutors, Mr. Sampson was recorded hiding his stake in an unnamed liquor store in its license application.

“During a series of telephone calls that were captured on the Sampson Wiretap, the defendant … told the Partners that [his] ownership interest should not be disclosed in the Application” today’s indictment reads.

Mr. Sampson was also recorded instructing an anonymous government staffer to help the store deal with outstanding tax obligations. The senator even appeared to be aware of the potential illegalities involved, telling the staffer to “do it on your own cell phone and do it on your own time.”

He is further accused of lying about these incidents and others when speaking to federal agents.

From the NY Post:

Over whiskey-soaked meetings in Atlantic City hotel suites and pricey New York steakhouses, disgraced Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. merrily sold off the perks of his office for cash, prosecutors said Monday as his corruption trial opened in Brooklyn federal court.

The self-coronated “king of Brownsville” offered up everything from profitable real estate development deals to street carnival permits in exhange for payola, according to the feds.

“This is a case about money and power and how the defendant, William Boyland Jr., abused that power to get money,” assistant US Attorney Robert Capers said.

Despite representing a downtrodden area in dire need of political vision as opposed to vice, Boyland Jr. hungrily sought out personal benefit at the expense of his constituents, Capers said.

“He had the power to bring change to his community,” he said. “But all he wanted to do was get money.”

With his legal fees from a separate Manhattan case piling up, Boyland Jr. demanded $250,000 from an agent posing as a real estate honcho in 2011 and promised access to a distressed property in return, prosecutors said.

The political scion also stuck out his palm to another man posing as a carnival operator who wanted a permit for a Brownsville event, papers state.

The assemblyman even fleeced taxpayers by cashing in expense checks for Albany related business that never took place, prosecutors said.

Judge nixes public payment of defense

From the NY Post:

Here’s a bright bit of news: Crooked Albany pols may be getting only one one shot at having taxpayers cover their legal bills when they’re caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

To be specific, Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. (D-Brooklyn) received the bad news last week: Brooklyn federal Judge Sandra Townes rejected his request that taxpayers pick up the bill for his legal defense in his latest corruption trial.

Townes rightly noted that Boyland — who owns a $460,000 home and earns a $79,500 part-time salary plus a legislator per diem that brings in an additional $17,000 — should be able to afford his own attorney.

Of course, it’s understandable that Boyland would assume that he could get the public to pay for his legal defense in this trial, his second in as many years.

After all, the taxpayers were on the hook in last year’s federal trial — in which he beat a variety of pay-to-play and no-show-job charges.

The Manhattan federal judge who heard that case determined that taxpayers should subsidize Boyland’s defense.

Oh, Boy-land, are we getting hosed!

From the Daily News:

William Boyland Jr., the Brooklyn assemblyman accused of soliciting a bribe to pay for his lawyers has found another sucker to pick up his legal tab: you!

It didn't cost the Democrat a nickel to beat the corruption case brought by Manhattan federal prosecutors earlier this year because he was represented by court appointed counsel.

The same legal dream team, Richard Rosenberg and Michael Bachrach, have been appointed to reprise their roles in the new corruption charges filed against Boyland this week by the feds in Brooklyn. It will be on the taxpayer's dime at $125-per hour, again, because Boyland says he's broke.

Guy makes six-figures and needs a public defender?

And his bag woman/chief-of-staff was pinched yesterday as well. Will she also be using a public defender?

One guilty, one not guilty

From the Daily News:

Queens City Councilman Ruben Wills reluctantly pleaded guilty Thursday to a 15-year-old Manhattan larceny case that was unearthed by the Daily News.

The Queens Democrat admitted to a single misdemeanor criminal mischief charge for the 1996 theft case that was supposed to have been resolved years ago.

Instead, the politician had repeatedly dodged court dates and wound up the target of an outstanding bench warrant for his arrest.

After the News revealed that warrant and another in an unrelated Long Island case, Wills agreed to plead out - but again repeatedly postponed judgment day.

That day arrived Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court when a judge asked Wills if he was indeed guilty.

“Yes,” he answered tersely.

Wills finally agreed to admit guilt to the criminal mischief charge, perform three days of community service and repay his victim $2,500.

From the Daily News:

State Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. beat a federal rap Thursday that accused him of raking in money for a no-show job in return for wielding influence in Albany for a crooked hospital honcho.

On its third day of deliberations, a Manhattan jury told the judge it was hopelessly deadlocked at 10-against-2. But Judge Jed Rakoff told them to get back to work or look forward to coming back on Monday.

Less than an hour later, the jury returned the “not guilty” verdict — delivering a hard blow to Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, whose office charged the Brooklyn lawmaker with selling out his office for about $175,000.

Medisys CEO convicted of bribery

From the NY Times:

A former hospital chief executive was convicted on Monday in a far-reaching scheme to pay bribes to three New York State legislators in return for beneficial treatment toward his health care organization, MediSys Health Network.

The former executive, David P. Rosen, 63, was the first defendant to be tried as part of a federal investigation announced in March that has been seen as a stunning snapshot of the continuing problem of pervasive corruption in Albany.

At a trial this summer, prosecutors presented evidence that Mr. Rosen had funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to two Democratic assemblymen, William F. Boyland Jr. of Brooklyn and Anthony S. Seminerio, of Queens, through sham consulting contracts.

In return, prosecutors charged that the officials showered Mr. Rosen’s organization with state money and lobbied the state government on his behalf.

The latest crooked pol roundup: Espada, Smith, Parker & the Boylands

From the Daily News:

Senate President Malcolm Smith ripped off an elderly Queens couple he'd promised to build a dream house for in a land deal under scrutiny by the FBI, the Daily News has learned.

Cora Wheeling, 70, and her husband, Eddie, 71, wound up with no home to show for the $88,200 they put down toward a split-level Smith claimed he'd build them.

They sued in 1998; Smith still owes them more than $60,000.

"I didn't know he's a rat," an irate Cora Wheeling said. "I should have known better."

The house was supposed to be part of a subdivision Smith was trying to build on 230th St. in Cambria Heights. That deal is at the center of an expanding federal probe, sources said.

The FBI is also looking at why Smith got a steep discount from an architect hired for a job at that same address. The architect then got work at nonprofits Smith has funded with taxpayer dollars.

Investigators want to know if Smith used his influence as an elected official to benefit himself financially, a possibly criminal conflict of interest.

From the NY Post:

A do-nothing Brooklyn charity created with the help of state Sen. Kevin Parker used most of the $18,750 in taxpayer funds he steered to it to hire the brother of his chief-of-staff as a "planning consultant."

The only community program the Building Blocks Local Development Corp. managed to implement since it was created in 2004 was a part-time vegetable stand staffed by local teens at a farmers market on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn.

Parker has been uncharacteristically mum on Building Blocks, which has no office or discernible staff and only sporadically filed IRS forms designed to provide accountability of its spending.

That didn't stop Parker from trying to fund the organization -- authorizing $75,000 in pork-barrel money in five separate member-item grants since 2004.

From the NY Post:

A hospital group linked to an influence-peddling scandal in Albany put three members of a prominent family of Brooklyn politicians on its payroll, records and e-mails obtained by The Post show.

Prosecutors say MediSys Health Network, which runs Jamaica, Flushing and Brookdale hospitals and other ventures, gave $390,000 in "corrupt payments" to crooked ex-Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio's bogus consulting firm for help with government funding and acquisition of hospitals.

It also paid three members of the Boyland family, a force in central Brooklyn politics for decades:

* Assemblyman William F. Boyland Jr., a Democrat who represents Brownsville, was a "patient recruiter" for the MediSys-managed Brookdale Medical Center for years while helping the hospitals get state grants and lobbying for the network.

* His father, former Assemblyman William F. Boyland Sr., spent years on Brookdale's payroll, doing "public outreach."

"I improved the image of the hospital and tried to get patients to go there," he told The Post. He said he "retired" last June, the same month Seminerio pleaded guilty to fraud.

* Boyland Jr.'s sister, former City Councilwoman Tracy Boyland, helped Brookdale get $2.6 million in grants when she represented Brownsville. After leaving office in 2005, she was hired by Neighborhood Health Providers, a MediSys health-insurance company. She did not return calls.

The US Attorney's Office said only that its probe stemming from the Seminerio case is ongoing.

From the NY Post:

State Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr., already slapped with two lawsuits over alleged corruption at his Bronx health centers, may still be on the hot seat for Medicaid fraud.

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit asked for patient records from the Bronx Democrat's Soundview HealthCare Network, according to an October letter sent to Espada and included in court records.

The letter requests the "entire treatment history" and original charts for 259 patients.

One of those patients, Alfreda Alston, 54, of The Bronx, made repeated trips to the Soundview dental clinic over a year -- all paid for through Medicaid. Despite X-rays and exams, the staff could find nothing wrong with Alston's aching tooth, according to her daughter, Alfreda Jones.

Alston finally went to another dentist who fixed the ailment with a simple extraction.