Sampson not the smartest tweeder

From the Daily News:

State Sen. John Sampson coached a shady Queens businessman over drinks at an Italian restaurant in Mafia boss John Gotti’s old neighborhood, on how to fool the feds, it was revealed Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors played tapes secretly recorded inside Vetro restaurant in Howard Beach by star witness Edul Ahmad who had loaned Sampson $188,500 so the Brooklyn Democrat could repay foreclosure funds he had allegedly embezzled.

Ahmad was instructed by the FBI to show Sampson a check register documenting the loan. “This opens up a can of worms,” Sampson allegedly said at the Feb. 22, 2012 sit down. “Make sure you lose a couple of pages here and there…You don't have to give it to them.”

Speaking in a loud voice, Sampson advised Ahmad not to lie to the feds, but then whispered suggestions that he falsely claim the loan was payment for years of legal work that Sampson had performed for him.

Why do pols talk like they're in the mafia?

From the NY Post:

State Sen. John Sampson, of Brooklyn, was arrested by the FBI this morning and charged with embezzling $440,000 between 1998 and 2008, funneling some of the cash into his unsuccessful 2005 campaign to become Brooklyn district attorney — and chillingly using a mole in the federal prosecutor's office to try and identify witnesses against him so he could arrange to "take them out."

At a press conference announcing the veteran politician's arrest, Eastern District US Attorney Loretta Lynch revealed the disturbing allegations that Sampson had a Justice Department mole in her office to keep tabs on the criminal probe into his activities — and leak information about the identify of federal informants.

"He did attempt to trade on a personal relationship with an administrative employee [of the Justice Department]...to gain information," Lynch said this morning.

The feds charge that Sampson explained to an unnamed real estate associate that he was attempting to discover the identities of federal witnesses in the Brooklyn US Attorney's mortgage fraud probe into his activities.

In one ominous exchange, Sampson allegedly told the real estate associate that if they could learn the identity of the federal informants, that "Sampson could arrange to 'take them out,'" the feds said today.

That Brooklyn federal employee has since been terminated, but Lynch declined to offer details about an internal probe that followed — saying aspects of the investigation into Sampson's alleged wrongdoing is ongoing.

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.

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.

The end of Estelle Cooper

From the Queens Courier:

Former Queens Parks Commissioner Estelle Cooper passed away over the weekend, according to Sinai Chapels in Fresh Meadows.

The 82-year-old Whitestone resident, who was indicted in July on grand larceny charges for allegedly stealing over $50,000 from a nonprofit conservancy group she helped start, was facing up to 15 years in prison if she had been tried and convicted.

She followed in Donald's footsteps

Wondering what the tie was between all the tweeders and the recently deceased Cecilia Chang, who was on trial for embezzling at St. John's University?

This Queens Tribune article from 2003 is a great reminder:

I write this on Saturday, and three non-related events of the past two days brought into focus the part of Mike [Nussbaum]’s life that is somewhat separate from our business and his family. Although Mike integrates all that he does – his family members have become my friends and mine his – and his outside ventures often become my causes, there is another Mike.

Event 1, Thursday night: Lil and I attended the Queens Jewish Community Council’s 35th Anniversary Terrace-on-the Park Gala in honor of Claire Shulman and Mike Nussbaum.

Event 2, Friday afternoon: We cleared our Tribune office floors to make room for new carpet and in looking into Mike’s office, I noticed various mementos of a peace trip to North and South Korea that Mike had arranged when Congressman Gary Ackerman became the first person since Douglas McArthur to cross the 39th parallel which divides the two nations.

Event 3, Saturday morning: Mike took Senator Chuck Shumer to welcome Taiwan President Chen Shui-Bian to New York and announce Shumer was joining the newly formed Senate Taiwan Caucus to further ties between our two nations.

Yes, Mike brings us Asian clients and friends — but that’s the smallest part. His network includes the very top government officials and business giants in the Far East as well as their counterparts here in our country.

At the Thursday night affair, I met Mike’s old friend Dr. Cecelia Chang, vice president of St. John’s and Dean of the Asian Studies program. In 1980, as president of his own company, Mike helped Cecelia put together the first government and business delegation to visit Taiwan. Queens Chamber Prez, Citibank’s Peg Sweezy, Queens Beep Donald Manes, Congressman Jim Scheuer, Councilmembers Archie Spigner and Ed Sadowsky were a few who went with them. It was that trip which established Queens County and Taipai, the capital of Taiwan, as sister cities.

It also established Mike as a player in the Far East.

From the Daily Mail:

The New York Daily News also reports that detectives investigated Ms Chang in the murder of her husband. From his death bed, Mr Tsai reportedly wrote 'My wife did this!' when questioned by detectives.

He was shot four times in the back while leaving his business in Brooklyn, New York, in 1990. He died later and no one has every been charged in his death.

Tsai's note also suggested that Dr Chang had an affair with Queens Borough President Donald Manes, a neighbor who killed himself in 1986 after being caught in a scandal.

Queens used-car dealer embezzled millions

Feds: New York Car Dealer Stole Millions to Live High Life

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP/1010 WINS) -- Federal officials say a used-car dealer embezzled millions of dollars to live out a fantasy lifestyle.

Thirty-seven-year-old Chris Orsaris is accused in a massive fraud and embezzlement scheme at Major Automotive Cos., which has 14 New York City dealerships. He was denied bail Thursday, and previously pleaded not guilty.

Officials say Orsaris funneled a fortune in inflated sales commissions to cover luxuries. They included a $5.5 million Trump World Tower apartment and a $2.9 million Hamptons home.

The feds say he also hired thugs and drug dealers as his bodyguards, chauffeurs and personal assistants.

At the time of his arrest, Orsaris managed a Queens dealership.

His lawyer did not return a call for comment. Major Automotive's lawyer said the company is fully cooperating with prosecutors.