Maspeth shelter owner has admitted history of bribery

From the Daily News:

The way developer Harshad Patel recalls it, Brooklyn Sen. Carl Kruger offered to help him get a zoning change to turn his Sheepshead Bay hot-sheet hotel into apartments.

But it would cost him.

Patel, 58, told the Daily News that Kruger instructed him to write checks to Olympian Strategic Development, a company controlled by Kruger's "intimate associate," Michael Turano.

Each month for nine months in 2007, Patel said, he paid Olympian $3,000, hoping Kruger could win approval to transform his Golden Gate Motor Inn into four apartment buildings.

In the end, he said, nothing came of the zoning change, despite Kruger's involvement, and he sold the hotel.

"I wasted a lot of time and money on that," he said.

Patel is part of a growing parade of locals the FBI believes bribed Kruger to win his political largesse, newly released court papers show.

And the city is doing business with this individual because?

McLaughlin sprung from the pokey

From the Queens Chronicle:

Brian McLaughlin is a free man.

The former Flushing assemblyman, who served six years for racketeering and other charges, was released Friday from Schuylkill Federal Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania.

He will remain on supervised release, under supervision of the Department of Probation for three years. Probation will also be monitoring his employment as part of his release, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

McLaughlin, 62, was sentenced to a 10-year term, but in May a federal judge reduced the sentence as a reward for his cooperation with the government.

According to court papers, prosecutors said that his help, by wearing wires and taping conversations, assisted the government in putting away state Sen. Carl Kruger of Brooklyn, Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio of Ozone Park and David Rosen, CEO of the MediSys Health Network, which operates Flushing and Jamaica hospitals.

The judge also applauded McLaughlin for working as a counselor in prison for drug addicts and alcoholics.

Smith wants trial postponed; Albany may ban use of donations to pay lawyers

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.

The sordid history of the Four Sparrow Marsh project

From the Daily News:

Construction on a project that includes a major car dealership has quietly started on a controversial piece of land in Mill Basin twice tied to scandal-scarred politicians who have tried to help developers buy the land from the city.

In April, the Bloomberg administration announced it had sold the 110,000-square-foot parcel near the Four Sparrow Marsh and the Belt Parkway to Brooklyn auto dealer Lilaahar (Sammy) Bical, owner of Kristal Auto Mall, one of the biggest Cadillac dealers on the East Coast.

Bical was helped in his bid to obtain the land after paying tainted state Sen. John Sampson (D-Canarsie) a $10,000 "retainer fee" to help arrange a sit-down with Bloomberg administration officials, the News reported last month.

Those meetings occurred in early 2012, and this past March the city sold him the land for $4.2 million.

Sampson and his lawyer, Zachary Carter, did not respond to calls seeking comment.

The FBI is investigating whether Sampson broke the law by seeking and receiving retainer fees from Bical, and another businessman, in an unrelated case, who sought his assistance in dealing with the government, sources said.

Originally, the city planned to sell the land to Forest City Ratner to build a mini mall. That plan was scuttled in September 2011 after a Forest City Ratner official was revealed to have asked disgraced former state Sen. Carl Kruger for state funds, according to a criminal complaint.

As part of the new deal, the city also sold Toys R Us the land it currently occupies for $13 million.

The first part of construction, which has just begun, entails carving out a spot for a new parking lot for the toy store, which park advocates charge is being built on protected marsh land. The expanded car dealership will later be built on the old Toys R Us parking lot, city officials said.

Conservation groups and park advocates plan to sue to block the city's sale of the land on the grounds that it lacked proper state approval.

Classic case of "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours"

From the Daily News:

For elected officials, it’s part of the job: assisting constituents with problems.

When some people sought the help of Brooklyn state Sen. John Sampson, he allegedly demanded that they hire him as their lawyer.

The FBI is investigating whether the Sampson broke the law by seeking and receiving retainer fees from at least two businessmen who sought his assistance in dealing with the government, the Daily News has learned.

In both cases, the FBI taped the businessmen discussing their involvement with Sampson, sources say.

Sources familiar with the investigation say a focus of their inquiry is the “retainer fees” Sampson has demanded for the kind of work that other elected officials typically perform as part of their jobs.

Sampson was once one of Albany’s most powerful politicians, rising to the top of the Senate’s leadership in 2009 after Democrats became a majority in the chamber. He lost power two years later when Democrats lost their control of the Senate.

And like dozens of other state legislators, Sampson works on the side as an attorney. His Senate biography notes he represents clients in “real estate, criminal and election matters.”

Neither Sampson nor his lawyer, Zachary Carter, responded to written questions about the retainer fees.

One of those questioned by the FBI, sources say, is Brooklyn auto dealer Lilaahar (Sammy) Bical, owner of Kristal Auto Mall, one of the biggest Cadillac dealers on the East Coast.

Last year the FBI confronted Bical about Sampson’s role in helping him eliminate hurdles blocking Bical’s plan to buy a city-owned plot on Flatbush Ave. near the Belt Parkway.

Bical wanted the land to expand his dealership. But he faced opposition from some local politicians, including then-Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn), who was trying to help developer Bruce Ratner build a shopping mall on the same property (Kruger was later indicted in an unrelated case and is now in prison).

Seeking help, Bical turned to Sampson. The senator requested a $10,000 “retainer fee” up front, and Bical wrote the check, sources say. Soon after, Sampson arranged a sit-down with Bloomberg administration officials at City Hall.

Kristal Auto Mall on Kings Highway is owned by Sammy Bical, who allegedly paid Sen. John Sampson $10,000 for a an eventual sit-down meeting with the Bloomberg administration that led him to buy $4.2 million for a plot of land to expand the dealership.

A spokesman for the city Economic Development Corp., which oversaw the land sale, confirmed that Sampson “provided legal counsel to Mr. Bical at a certain point and did meet with EDC a few times.”

A city official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the meetings as “an awkward situation because he’s not just a lawyer — he’s also a senator.”

And lawyering while politicking is currently legal.

The perks of public office

From the Daily News:

The explosion of Capitol corruption scandals in recent years has turned a bunch of campaign accounts into legal defense funds.

Twenty elected officials since 2004 spent a combined $6.78 million on legal fees related to criminal and ethical investigations against them, a Daily News/New York Public Interest Research Group analysis shows.

The list has included some of the most powerful elected officials in Albany, including former Gov. David Paterson, convicted former Controller Alan Hevesi, former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and pervy Assemblyman Vito Lopez.

In the past two years alone, state lawmakers spent nearly $2 million in campaign funds on legal fees, led by the $1.5 million paid by former state Sen. Carl Kruger. He’s serving seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty in 2011 to bribery and other corruption charges.

The state Board of Elections in a 1989 formal opinion ruled the use of campaign cash for lawyer bills is legal if the investigations are related to someone’s office or campaign.

Some lawmakers and government reformers say that needs to change.

Parking rules don't apply to the ruling class

From the NY Post:

Councilman Lew Fidler (D-Brooklyn) -- the frontrunner to fill the disgraced Kruger’s Senate seat in a special election March 20 – is up to his old tricks routinely parking on a sidewalk corridor in the plaza behind Borough Hall and then walking across the street to work at his Court Street law office.

But unlike October 2010, when the Post reported he had illegally parked his 2002 Infiniti I35 routinely on the public plaza the previous two years, Fidler now pulls in with a larger, sweeter ride -- a 2011 Infiniti FX35.

All this while kicking up his campaign to fill the southern Brooklyn Senate seat held by Kruger, who stepped down last month after tearfully pleading guilty to collecting nearly $1 million in bribes.

“It’s insane that [Fidler] would do this when there’s already a lack of trust over politicians in his district between Kruger and [the sexting scandal that led to last year’s resignation of former Rep. Anthony] Weiner,” said a stunned Brooklyn pol.

The city says only borough-president office vehicles can park in the reserved section of the plaza, between Court and Adams streets and next to Columbus Park.

Dirty pols use campaign funds for defense

From the Daily News:

When some New York politicians find themselves facing corruption charges, they don’t have to worry about how to pay for a high-priced defense attorney — because they know they can just open up their campaign checkbooks.

Just ask Carl Kruger.

The admitted crook nearly drained his entire campaign war chest trying to save his hide — dropping $1.42 million in campaign funds on big shot criminal defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman, according to the latest state campaign finance filings.

State elected officials by law are not supposed to use campaign cash for purposes “unrelated to a political campaign or the holding of a public office or party position.”

But the state has allowed them to spend it on criminal defense lawyers — a legal interpretation that perverts a donor’s intent when they write a check for campaign dough, argued Susan Lerner, director of the nonpartisan watchdog group, Common Cause/New York.

“When contributors give to a candidate, they want to support the candidate in his election campaign — not pay for his defense against fraud charges,” she charged.

Other states require candidates to form defense committees, making clear to donors where their money will end up.

Teflon Ratner always finds himself in the middle

From the NY Times:

The Brooklyn and Yonkers cases are not simply about wayward politicians. The cases share an intriguing tie to the developer Bruce Ratner, who in project after project deploys lobbyists and politicians to change zoning ordinances and chase down rich packets of subsidies.

I should emphasize that Mr. Ratner has walked between the legal raindrops. Federal prosecutors have not implicated him or his company, Forest City Ratner, in either of these corruption cases.

But he figures prominently enough that the indictments identify him as “Developer No. 1” in Brooklyn and “Developer No. 2” in Yonkers. In Brooklyn, he has pushed the 22-acre Atlantic Yards development, including an arena and residential towers. Forest City Ratner was the development partner for the headquarters of The New York Times Company.

Mr. Ratner has a political maestro’s touch. His vice president, Bruce Bender, is a stalwart of the Democratic Party’s powerful Thomas Jefferson Club in south Brooklyn. Its members — Mr. Kruger, Councilman Lewis A. Fidler and State Senator John L. Sampson — quickly championed this project.

Loophole in new law allows convicted tweeders to keep pensions

From NBC New York:

Convicted of crimes and thrown out of office, several New York lawmakers may be disgraced but they are still taking taxpayer money, according to the comptroller's office. Katy Tur reports.

Kruger resigns and pleads guilty

From NY1:

Brooklyn state senator Carl Kruger resigned from his post Tuesday moments before pleading guilty to charges he participated in a bribery scheme.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says Kruger, 62, and co-defendant Michael Turano, 50, accepted nearly half a million dollars in exchange for green-lighting several projects for lobbyists and business people.

Turano, a Manhattan-based gynecologist, also pled guilty.

Before entering court, Kruger's letter of resignation was delivered to the Secretary of State Senate.

It takes effect immediately.

Kruger faces the possibility of up to 50 years in prison; Turano faces 20.

Both are scheduled to be sentenced on April 26.

Espada spent like a drunken sailor before he left

From the Daily News:

Disgraced former Senate Democratic Majority Leader Pedro Espada spent more on staff in the final three months of last year than any senator did during those same months and the following three combined, new records show.

The federally-indicted Espada, who is no longer a senator, spent $749,803 on staff in October, November and December, according to the latest Senate expenditure report.

Second was Sen. Carl Kruger, the criminally-charged Brooklyn Democrat, who in a six-month period from October through March spent $558,839 on staff. He was followed closely by John Sampson, who spent $520,526. The Brooklyn Democrat ended last year as the majority conference leader but this year is the minority leader given that the GOP reclaimed control of the house.

Current Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos, who last year was the minority leader, spent $208,160 on staff during the six months, according to the Senate expenditure book.

All told, total Senate expenditures during the six-month period was $48 million, which Republicans say is $3 million less than the Democrats spent the previous six-month period they were in control of the chamber.

That's some salary!

From the NY Post:

A top aide scrutinized in the federal pay-to-play probe that snared his boss, state Sen. Carl Kruger, is raking in a $162,442-a-year salary -- the highest of any staffer in the state Legislature, The Post has learned.

Jason Koppel, 34, the embattled Brooklyn Democrat's chief of staff and campaign manager, saw his salary rise 40 percent -- or $47,128 -- over the 16-month period ending January 2010.

The pay hikes came as the feds stepped up an investigation into Kruger that also looked at Koppel, according to sources and court documents.

Kruger even backdated the last raise three months, in essence giving Koppel a $6,700-plus bonus, records show.

That put his 2010 earnings at $169,228 -- more than double Kruger's $79,500 legislative salary.

Koppel has never been charged.

Navy Yard needs new developer

From the Real Deal:

The non-profit Brooklyn Navy Yard Development removed PA Associates as a designated developer on its high-profile Admiral's Row project a day after one of the firm's founders was charged in a $1 million federal bribery investigation. The quasi-governmental entity today “terminated the designation of PA Admirals Row LLC as the developer of the Admiral's Row site," the corporation said in a statement to The Real Deal. PA Admirals Row LLC is an affiliate of Midtown-based PA Associates, which was approved as the developer to partner with grocery chain ShopRite on the $60 million project to build a grocery store. Yesterday federal prosecutors charged Aaron Malinsky, a principal and founder of PA Associates, of funneling $472,500 in bribes to State Senator Carl Kruger.

Beware the hospital administrators

From Forest Hills Patch:

In the midst of a push to reopen Parkway Hospital in Forest Hills, the former top executive at the hospital was arrested on Thursday, caught up in a bribery sting involving state Sen. Carl Kruger, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Dr. Robert Aquino, who spent years fighting to keep Parkway Hospital from closing, and since its closure, fighting to reopen it, was arrested and charged with bribing the state senator in 2008.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, after the arrests were announced, expressed anger and consternation at the sheer number of state officials who have been tied up in bribery and corruption incidents.

In the complaint, Aquino is alleged to have paid $60,000 to one of a pair of shell companies set up by Kruger, in exchange for his help in 2008 lobbying to allow then-open Parkway Hospital to purchase to other Queens medical centers.

The plan, though widely publicized at the time, never came to fruition. Since the hospital's closure, Aquino has been aggressive in trying to reopen the facility, including writing a letter to Gov. David Paterson during the last month of his term to convince him to restore the hospital's operating certificate.

From the NY Times:

Starting in 2006, Mr. Rosen fought to block Wyckoff Heights Medical Center from buying two Catholic hospitals in Queens, Mary Immaculate and St. John’s. He feared that a takeover, which required state approval, would make Mary Immaculate a stronger competitor and would put nearby Jamaica Hospital out of business.

Medisys then tried to acquire the Catholic hospitals to keep them out of Wyckoff’s hands. Parkway Hospital also tried to buy them, and Mr. Seminerio and Mr. Kruger became involved in the dispute. Eventually, the two Catholic hospitals closed.

Kruger Crap

This is where Carl Kruger lives. Damn. This may be a Frank Lloyd Crap special.

From CBS 2:

Sources told Kramer that the investigation is on-going and that the taps and bugs on Kruger’s and other defendants’ phones have produced a cornucopia of possible corruption leads — even the complaint filed against Kruger has hints of possible new avenues of investigation. There is a reference to a Kruger conversation regarding “senator 1″ and a number of chats about “senate leader #1.”

Another Gang of Four member to bite the dust

From NY1:

State Senator Carl Kruger is expected to turn himself into authorities Thursday on unspecified charges brought forth by the U.S. attorney's office, sources tell NY1.

The veteran Brooklyn lawmaker and the former finance chairman of the state Senate has been implicated in an FBI influence peddling probe since 2008.

Kruger's surrender comes a week after a Brooklyn restaurant owner pleaded guilty in federal court that he lied to an undercover FBI agent, who was investigating the lawmaker.

Michael Levitis had bureaucratic problems with his restaurant, and says the senator's longtime chief of staff encouraged him to give the senator a fundraiser a return.

Brooklyn pols support money launderer

From the NY Post:

A Brighton Beach-connected international money launderer — who worked under the European equivalent of John Gotti — counts ranking New York politicians among his friends.

A trio of powerhouse politicos is coming to the aid of Nikolai Dozortsev: state Sen. Carl Kruger, Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny, and even Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. The elected officials all sent letters on his behalf to the Brooklyn federal court judge who will sentence Dozortsev later this week.

Dozortsev – a twice-convicted felon with a criminal career spanning two decades – was the money man for a violent organized crime syndicate. The group’s illegal activities in the U.S. and Europe easily exceeded $50 million a year, officials say.

He worked alongside the legendary European mob boss Ricardo Fanchini, and faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced.

But Brook-Krasny calls Dozortsev a man "of integrity and strong moral fiber" in a letter written on Assembly letterhead and addressed to the judge presiding over the case.

Kruger, another Brighton pol, who sits on the state Senate’s Crime Victims and Crime and Corrections committees, urged Judge Frederic Block to kindly "take under consideration" the assistance Dozortsev and his family has given to other immigrants from Russia settling in New York.

Markowitz wrote Block a letter praising the character of Dozortsev’s parents and explaining that although he had never met "Nick," he hopes their qualities had been passed on to him.

P.S. Pedro Espada's been indicted.

Immigrants and voting - two opinions

From Sunnyside Post:

It is time for our evolving democracy to embrace voting rights in local elections for all residents. We are all stakeholders in our community and should have a say in important local issues. In the words of the Revolutionary patriots who put their lives on the line for the freedoms we enjoy today, “No taxation without representation.”

Our democracy is becoming ever more inclusive, but we still have a long way to go. Over the years, we have recognized the right of African Americans, women, and others to vote. Even so, this progress has not yet extended to all residents. Tax paying residents who do not yet have citizenship cannot vote, even in local elections.

New York has always been a beacon for both immigrants and democracy. This is why we should lead the way in ensuring that our non-citizen community members can exercise the right to vote in local elections.

Meanwhile, in Brooklyn...courtesy of Sheepshead Bites:

“For far too long, dozens of thousands of the Russian-American senior citizens of New York have been shut out of the voting process unfairly because of the language barrier,” pontificated State Sen. Carl Kruger when he introduced the legislation. Passed by the New York state Senate 48 to14 on May 28, the bill, known as S. 552 – An act to amend the election law in relation to providing Russian-language voting materials” passed the state Assembly with only 23 members dissenting out of 132 votes cast.

Russian was thereby added to the list of existing alternate languages in which election material must be printed, the others being Spanish, Chinese and Korean.

...we don’t really have a need for these translations. I don’t know who is going to be reading them, when all this can be heard on the radio in a form that is a lot more interesting and less officious.

Other than that, I have never had any problems at the voting polls. Respectful Russian–speaking volunteers showed and explained everything.

It appears that the motivation behind this bill was painfully transparent — it was a dishonest and disrespectful misjudging of the Russian community by the politicians.

“In my humble opinion, I just don’t understand real purpose of this bill,” immigrant Boris Borovoy states flatly. “The majority of politically active Russian-Americans are fluent in English and have no need for a Russian translation; to me it’s another pork barrel, another waste of taxpayers’ money for a mostly symbolic purpose.

And for hard-working, middle-class Russian-Americans it’s real slap in a face. “Want to make some important political decisions? Learn English, comrade. That’s as simple as it gets”.

$7M for CB office

From the NY Post:

The city is spending $7 million in taxpayer money on a state-of-the-art office building for a Brooklyn community board that has only two employees -- state Sen. Carl Kruger's girlfriend and sister, The Post has learned.

It's a costly "giveback" to Community Board 18 and the embattled Brooklyn Democrat for his backing nearly two decades ago of a $357 million city sewage-overflow storage plant, which is just now being built at Paerdegat Basin, officials said.

"It's a sweetheart deal for a community board run like a family-owned store," said Dick Dadey, executive director of the government-watchdog group Citizens Union.

Dadey said the recently completed 4,000-square-foot office and meeting space is "so out of context" with what other local boards get that it will just open the floodgates to others asking for the same.

It's rare for community boards to have dedicated city-owned office and meeting spaces. Most rent offices, are advised not to exceed 1,500 square feet of space, and host public meetings at larger spaces, city officials said.

But the city is paying the price now for a deal the Dinkins administration cut in the early 1990s, while Kruger chaired CB 18 and the Department of Environmental Protection project was up for approval by the board.

Kruger, however, said the city has only itself to blame for the high cost.

"It's a disgrace that this project is 10 years behind schedule, so, of course, costs escalated," said Kruger, the subject of an FBI probe into alleged influence peddling.