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Who will it be?

From the Times-Union:

Last week, prosecutors revealed in a pre-sentencing letter that Huntley wore a wire for several months in pursuit of a cooperation agreement with federal investigators, and in a separate Tuesday filing said their sentencing memo — which will detail the extent of her cooperation — contains the names of eight people under investigation. Six of those people are elected officials. One of the nine is not under investigation.

District Judge Jack Weinstein agreed with members of the courtroom press corps that the public's right to know outweighed the danger of compromising any ongoing investigations. He scheduled the unsealing of the memo for 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Shirley got the goods on other electeds

From the NY Times:

Soon after prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed last month that a New York State assemblyman had been secretly making audio and video recordings for law enforcement, other legislators began nervously joking that they could never be sure who else was taping them.

Little did they know.

On Friday, prosecutors disclosed that Shirley L. Huntley, when she was a Democratic state senator from Queens, had secretly recorded conversations with seven elected officials and two other people after she was confronted by the F.B.I. and asked about her alleged participation in criminal schemes involving embezzlement and bribery.

The revelation that Ms. Huntley was taping conversations suggested a widening dragnet in Albany: the spectacle of two sitting lawmakers — one a senator, the other an assemblyman — independently recording conversations at the behest of federal authorities.

The undercover work of the assemblyman, Nelson L. Castro, a Bronx Democrat who cooperated to avoid prosecution for perjury, helped federal prosecutors in Manhattan with an investigation that led to charges against another Bronx Democrat, Assemblyman Eric A. Stevenson, for accepting bribes. On Friday, prosecutors said in court papers that Ms. Huntley’s recordings of a senator and two other elected officials “did yield evidence useful to law enforcement authorities.”

The senator was not identified in the court documents, but a person with knowledge of the matter said the senator was John L. Sampson, a Brooklyn Democrat and former Senate leader who has long been under investigation. Mr. Sampson has not been charged, and neither Mr. Sampson nor his lawyer responded to requests for comment.

You have to wonder why the others continue to talk to those under indictment.

The gang that couldn't stay straight

From the Daily News:

Both Smith and his co-defendant, Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens), had colorful online profiles that portray radically different realities from the scheming, crooked lives prosecutors say they were actually leading.

On the Web, Smith and Halloran were legends in their own minds, fighting for the people of Queens, thousands of whom were reeling in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Meanwhile, in hotel rooms and idling cars, prosecutors say, they were hatching plans to bribe men they thought were developers — but were really working for the FBI — to obtain power or just plain old cash.

The two worlds merged Tuesday when both men joined four others in federal court, facing charges that make crystal clear there’s more to the picture than a tweet or two.

From the Daily News:

While the city’s five crime families ran multimillion-dollar rackets in waste management, the Garment District and construction, the elected officials allegedly peddled their influence for far less.

Halloran collected $38,000, Stevenson received less than $20,000 cash and Bronx GOP Chairman Joseph (Jay) Savino sold out for just $15,000, officials charged.

John Gotti spent more on his wardrobe while running the Gambino family.

From the NY Times:

The link between corrupt politicians and steakhouses would appear to be so obvious that corrupt politicians would avoid them altogether, especially since there are apparently as many hidden microphones as shrimp cocktails at a given table. But still they come. Experts on either side of the napkin offered theories.

“They’re men,” said Ben Benson, the owner of the former steakhouse that bore his name. “Men go to steakhouses. The power lunches, the power dinners — it’s what the steakhouse is all about.” Dim lighting, plush booths; there is an unspoken promise of discretion in a steakhouse. As Mr. Benson put it, they are “clubby.” One of his restaurant’s most memorable decorations was itself a reminder of a famous steakhouse crime: a large picture of the mobster Paul Castellano shot dead in front of the steakhouse Sparks in 1985. “Eat at Ben Benson’s,” the poster read. “It Won’t Kill You.”

From the NY Post:

Halloran converted in the 1980s from Catholicism to the pre-Christian Germanic religion, whose believers drink mead or whiskey from horns and dress like characters in a Renaissance fair.

He learned about their tough disciplinary code when he committed an undisclosed act against a female “thrall” — or probationary servant.

He was stripped to his waist, strapped to a tree and flogged with a belt 11 times.

I propose similar punishment for his recent alleged crimes.

Pressure getting to Johnny?

From the NY Times:

John C. Liu, New York City’s comptroller, turned his performance at a neighborhood forum for mayoral candidates into an ultimatum to federal officials investigating his campaign fund-raising, demanding on Thursday night that they “put up or shut up already” after a multiyear inquiry.

Mr. Liu’s forceful critique of the federal agents looking into the legality of his donations, unprompted by a moderator or his rivals, captured his mounting frustration with an investigation that has cast a shadow over his fledgling campaign.

“Despite my record and despite my vision for the city, which I think is the right vision, there are still whispers about this cloud hanging over my head,” Mr. Liu said in his closing statement at the forum, focused on poverty and income inequality.

His voice rising in anger, Mr. Liu listed his grievances: “Three years of investigating. They wiretapped my phones for 18 months. They reviewed a million documents and messages. They interrogated thousands of my supporters. And yet, what do they have to show for it? It’s time to put up or shut up already. Because I have an election to win!”

Will Johnny get away with it?

From the NY Post:

Embattled city Comptroller John Liu is not yet out of the woods in the criminal probe of his campaign fund-raising activities, sources said yesterday.

A report published yesterday suggested that Liu would not be personally charged in the case.

Prosecutors are far from clearing Liu or shutting the door on the case — and still haven’t ruled out filing charges against him or his campaign manager, Chung Seto, at a later date, a federal law-enforcement insider told The Post.

“The investigation isn’t getting closed. It will remain active. There are still things that can be done,” the source said.

And one of the current defendants is apparently a mental case besides being corrupt.

Here come the Feds!

From the NY Post:

The feds are grilling state Senate Democratic insiders as part of an explosive probe into an alleged Aqueduct casino bid-rigging scandal, The Post has learned.

Investigators are asking questions about the roles of then-Senate Democratic leaders John Sampson and Malcolm Smith and others who were accused of helping the Aqueduct Entertainment Group (AEG) land a multibillion-dollar casino contract three years ago, sources said.

The state ultimately rescinded the contract in 2010 amid a state inspector general’s probe into claims of favoritism. The IG’s office referred its scathing findings to federal authorities for potential prosecution.

The state subsequently selected Genting, an international gambling firm, to operate the Aqueduct slots casino.

It’s the second federal probe targeting Sampson. The Post last week reported that the former Senate minority leader is linked to a broader federal investigation into Queens Rep. Gregory Meeks and a convicted real estate developer, Edul Ahmad.

Smith, who has talked about running for mayor on the Republican line, also is being targeted as part of the Meeks inquiry, a law-enforcement official said.

Johnny wiretap transcript excerpt

From the NY Times:

“How much are we short?” the fund-raiser asked the New York City official.
Related

“I don’t know,” the official responded. “I have to get the update” from a campaign aide. “I know we are not finished yet.”

So went a snippet of a conversation between a person who appears to be the official, John C. Liu, the city comptroller, and the fund-raiser, Xing Wu Pan, that was recorded in July 2010 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as part of a sweeping inquiry into Mr. Liu’s campaign fund-raising.

Mr. Pan was arrested on fraud charges in November, and Jia Hou, Mr. Liu’s former treasurer for his presumptive 2013 race for mayor, was arrested three months later. Both have pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to defraud the city by funneling campaign contributions to Mr. Liu through a scheme to use “straw donors” — people who donate to a candidate and are illegally reimbursed by others for their contributions.

Mr. Liu, a Democrat, has not been charged with wrongdoing. Previous court documents indicated that he was the subject of government wiretaps for almost two years. But the newly released documents, which were filed on Tuesday, revealed publicly for the first time excerpts from conversations in what appear to be Mr. Liu’s voice, as captured on wiretaps.

The documents, filed as part of papers seeking authorization to wiretap Mr. Liu and others, suggest that the comptroller was engaged in his campaign on a granular level, and also perhaps had closer dealings with Mr. Pan than was previously known.

Liu's phones were tapped for 2 years

From the Daily News:

PHONES BELONGING to City Controller John Liu were among those secretly wiretapped during a probe into his campaign fund-raising operation that dated to 2009, new court papers revealed Monday.

The feds had 10 wiretaps on six different phones belonging to Liu and several others connected to his campaign for more than 18 months in 2010 and 2011, according to the documents filed in Manhattan Federal Court.

The wiretaps intercepted thousands of calls from March 2010 to September 2011, the filing by lawyers for former Liu campaign Treasurer Jia (Jenny) Hou notes.

Her attorney, Gerald Lefcourt, said the investigation of Liu began in 2009 when a confidential source approached the FBI with information about a campaign donor. Liu began serving as controller in January 2010.