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From the
NY Post:
The ex-speaker of the New York state Assembly Sheldon Silver was found guilty on Friday of selling his office for $4 million in kickbacks — affirming a 2015 conviction on the same charges that had been overturned on appeal.
A jury of seven women and five men found Silver, 74, guilty of all seven counts against him, including two counts of honest services mail fraud and money laundering.
He faces as much as 130 years in prison when sentenced on July 13.
From the
Times Ledger:
A federal jury found Ozone Park Democrat Albert Baldeo guilty of obstruction of justice, but acquitted him of mail and wire fraud charges Monday, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.
Baldeo, a former Democratic district leader and candidate for office, turned himself into the FBI in November 2012, after he was charged with having fake donors contribute to his failed 2010 City Council campaign to receive matching funds from the city and obstructing the government’s investigation. He was running against City Councilman Ruben Wills (D-Jamaica).
Jurors handed down convictions on seven obstruction of justice charges, but did not find Baldeo guilty on three charges of mail and wire fraud, Bharara’s staff said.
The seven charges each carry sentences of up to 20 years behind bar, according to Bharara’s office.
From
Crains:
A jury took only about 90 minutes Tuesday to convict former New York City Councilman Daniel Halloran of bribery charges in a scheme to buy a spot on the mayoral ballot for state Sen. Malcolm Smith.
Mr. Halloran was also found guilty of taking payoffs from what he thought were developers who wanted him to funnel city money their way. The men were actually an FBI agent and an FBI informant.
The 42-year-old Mr. Halloran spent five days on the witness stand in federal court in White Plains, N.Y. He faces up to 20 years in prison when he's sentenced Dec. 12.
From
NY1:
State Senator Malcolm Smith wants to delay his trial on corruption charges until his re-election race is over.
The Queens Democrat's attorney asked a federal judge to wait until this year's primary date is set, then schedule the trial afterward.
He said Smith should run for office "unfettered."
The prosecution, however, says that voters would be better served with a verdict before the election.
From the
NY Post:
A bill introduced by Brooklyn Assemblyman Nick Perry would make it illegal for corrupt politicians to use campaign cash to pay legal bills.
Under the measure introduced last week, elected officials wouldn’t be able to access donor funds if they’re indicted, charged or convicted of a crime, or if they resign as a result of violating state ethics law. Cash remaining in their campaign accounts would be forfeited to the state comptroller’s office, which would issue refunds to contributors.
Currently, lawmakers are able to take money from their campaign coffers and use it on high-priced lawyers to keep them out of the clink.
Former state Sen. Carl Kruger, who represented Mill Basin in Brooklyn, was sentenced to prison in April 2012 after taking bribes to steer $900,000 in taxpayer money to nonprofits. He used $1.5 million
from his campaign account to pay legal bills.
Former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno also shelled out about $1.5 million in donor cash to combat federal corruption charges.
Like all campaign-reform proposals, however, the bill faces hurdles in Albany.
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From
DNA Info:
A former aide and a fundraiser for City Comptroller John Liu were both found guilty in federal court on Thursday of helping to concoct a straw-donor scheme to benefit Liu's campaign, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.
Donor Xing Wu “Oliver” Pan, 47, and former Liu campaign treasurer Jia “Jenny” Hou, 26, were accused of skirting campaign finance limits and defrauding the city of matching funds by setting up "straw donors" to Liu's campaign.
Those straw donors allegedly gave money in groups to Liu's campaign and were reimbursed at a later date by the real donors.
“As the jury found, Jia Hou and Oliver Pan stuck a knife into the heart of New York City’s campaign finance law by violating the prohibition against illegal campaign contributions, all to corruptly advantage the campaign of a candidate for citywide office," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a press release.
"Cases like this give the people of New York yet another reason to be troubled by the electoral process, and they have a right to demand fair, open, and honest elections untainted by cynical subversion of campaign finance laws."
Pan was ultimately found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and attempted wire fraud, and Hou was found guilty of attempted wire fraud, making false statements and obstruction of justice. She was found not guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Pan now faces a maximum of 40 years in prison, and Hou faces up to 45 years, according to a spokeswoman from Bharara's office.
From
NY1:
Nearly every day for the last two months, Pedro Espada Jr. has been upbeat about his chances, but the former State Senate majority leader's optimism was no match for the jury.
On Monday, jurors in Brooklyn federal court found Espada guilty of four counts of theft. He was accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from his not-for-profit health care clinic in the Bronx, Soundview HealthCare Network.
Prosecutors said Espada treated the clinic like his personal ATM, funding a lavish lifestyle with money that should have been used to provide health care for the poor.
The former senator's son, Pedro G. Espada, was also on trial, but the jury was hung on all counts related to him.
A mistrial was declared on eight counts against the younger Espada and four counts against the elder Espada.
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.
From
NY1:
A former aide accused of stealing more than a million dollars from Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been found guilty of grand larceny in the second degree this afternoon by a Manhattan jury.
John Haggerty was also found guilty of money laundering in the second degree.
He was found not guilty of grand larceny in the first degree.
His company was also found guilty of money laundering in the second degree.
Haggerty is accused of stealing more than a million dollars from the mayor’s 2009 campaign, saying he would be performing a ballot security operation, but instead using the money to buy a house.
NEW YORK (AP) -- A toxin-cleanup director and a company have been acquitted of manslaughter in a blaze that killed two firefighters at a condemned bank tower at ground zero.
A judge delivered the verdicts Wednesday in the August 2007 fire at the former Deutsche Bank building.
She found the John Galt Corp. guilty of second-degree reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor. She acquitted worker Mitchel Alvo of all charges. Jurors had acquitted two other construction-company supervisors of all charges last week.
The fire killed Robert Beddia and Joseph P. Graffagnino. It also revealed poor regulation of the damaged building. It was being dismantled in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
From the
Daily News:
A construction supervisor charged with the deaths of two firefighters in the Deutsche Bank building blaze was acquitted of all charges Tuesday.
Salvatore DePaola was cleared of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment on the eighth day of deliberations.
Graffagnino's family had no comment. But his father has said the wrong people were on trial.
"I couldn't care less if they find them guilty or not," said Joseph Graffagnino Sr., who boycotted the proceedings.
"Most%A0of the people that should be on trial are not on trial - the City of New York, the Buildings Department, the Fire Department ... all the people that let this slip through their fingers."
The jury is still deliberating in the case of DePaola's colleague, site safety manager Jeffrey Melofchik.
Supervisor Mitchel Alvo and the John Galt Corp., the site's demolition contractor, opted for a bench trial. DePaola is the least senior of the three men.From the
NY Times:
A site safety supervisor was acquitted of all charges on Wednesday in the fire at the former Deutsche Bank building near ground zero that killed two firefighters four years ago.
The supervisor, Jeffrey Melofchik, was one of three workers who were accused by prosecutors of ignoring the removal of a 42-foot section of the standpipe — preventing firefighters from quickly getting water onto the blaze — as they rushed to finish the abatement work on time. He was the most senior official among those charged in the case.
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