De Blasio donor pleaded guilty to bribery

From the NY Times:

A campaign donor to Mayor Bill de Blasio secretly pleaded guilty in federal court to bribery, admitting that he used his contributions to the mayor to try to win favorable lease terms for a restaurant he owned on city property, newly unsealed court records show.

While the court papers included no charges against Mr. de Blasio or other city officials, a federal criminal information in the case makes it clear that the donor, Harendra Singh, got something in return.

The court documents said that the mayor took steps to benefit Mr. Singh in exchange for the contributions, and that an unnamed senior aide to Mr. de Blasio arranged a meeting to pressure a city agency to offer more favorable terms to Mr. Singh.

Last March, federal prosecutors who had investigated Mr. de Blasio’s fund-raising decided not to bring criminal charges against the mayor based on what they described as a high burden of proof and the challenge of proving corruption without “evidence of personal profit.”

Mr. Singh’s plea hearing occurred in a sealed Long Island courtroom before United States District Court Judge Sandra J. Feuerstein on Oct. 17, 2016; Mr. Singh said that his donations were intended as part of a quid pro quo, according to a transcript of the hearing.

“I gave these donations to the elected official in exchange for efforts by that official and other city officials to obtain a lease renewal from the city agency for my restaurant on terms that were favorable to me,” he said.

Mr. Singh did not name the mayor, and the court documents refer instead to an “Official #2” who received the donations; various details in the documents make it clear that the unnamed official is Mr. de Blasio.

The court case that no one is talking about

From the Queens Chronicle:

The position of embattled City Councilman Ruben Wills (D-Jamaica) became even more tenuous last week when his co-defendant in a corruption case brought by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman pleaded guilty to lesser charges, and accused the councilman of hatching an elaborate scheme to steal campaign funds for personal use.

Jelani Mills said under oath that he assisted Wills in an alleged plot to take $11,500 in campaign funds between June 2009 and April 2010. The agreement with Schneiderman’s office was signed one day after Mills allegedly skipped out on a court date.

It also let Mills avoid a prison sentence by allowing him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of second-degree falsifying business records, with four more serious charges from his original indictment dropped.

Mills was originally charged with one count of third-degree larceny and three counts of first-degree falsifying business records when they were arrested.

The agreement stipulates that Mills will be sentenced to one year of probation and 10 days of community service. He could have faced up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine for the one remaining charge.

Schneiderman’s office declined to comment on the agreement, and no sentencing date was yet available.

The state also alleges that some of the campaign money was directed to NY 4 Life, a nonprofit concern that Wills allegedly controlled.

Scarborough to plead guilty

From the Daily News:

Indicted Assemblyman William Scarborough is scheduled to plead guilty May 7 to two felony federal corruption charges, the Daily News has learned.

Scarborough was charged last year in an 11-count indictment by the Albany U.S. attorney's office with improperly claiming taxpayer-funded travel expenses.

As part of the tentative plea deal, Scarborough will cop to one count of improperly receiving money from a program that receives federal funds, a source with knowledge of the situation said.

He'll also plead to a count of wire fraud connected to transmitting of the ill-gotten gains into his bank accounts, the source said.

By pleading guilty to the two felonies, Scarborough will automatically be forced to give up his seat.

It's unclear whether the latest disgraced Albany lawmaker will face prison time.

He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years for improperly receiving money from a program that receives federal funds and up to 20 years for the wire fraud charge.

He could also be fined a maximum of $250,000 on each count.

You are who your friends are

From the NY Post:

A number of Congressman Gregory Meeks’ friends are now in jail or under indictment, as prosecutors ramp up a federal probe into the New York Democrat.

One old pal, Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford, is already in federal prison; another, Edul Ahmad, is facing sentencing in a $50 million mortgage scam; and Albert Baldeo was recently charged with campaign-finance fraud.

Baldeo, the latest of Meeks’ pals to be arrested, is a Queens immigration lawyer whom the congressman described as a “good friend.”

Baldeo was arrested by federal authorities in October, charged with using straw donors in his failed 2010 City Council bid. He was accused of giving friends and associates money to donate to his campaign in their own names in an attempt to boost contributions and gain city matching funds.

Meeks, 59, had a satellite district office in a building owned by Baldeo from 2002 to 2004.

Baldeo told The Post he gave Meeks a break on the rent because he wanted the congressman to have a presence in his Richmond Hill community. House rules prohibit representatives from receiving below-market rent.

Baldeo is negotiating a possible plea deal with the feds. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on each of the four charges.

Should plea deal worry Meeks?

From the Times Ledger:

A real estate agent with questionable ties to U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Jamaica) pleaded guilty Wednesday to defrauding financial institutions in order to obtain mortgages for homes in southeast Queens.

Edul Ahmad, who entered a guilty plea in Brooklyn federal court to conspiring to commit bank fraud and wire fraud, faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

There was speculation that prosecutors prodded Ahmad to give up information about $40,000 he gave to Meeks in 2007, which was being investigated by the House Ethics Committee. Meeks failed to report the money on his 2007, 2008 or 2009 financial disclosure statements, according to an Office of Congressional Ethics investigation, which found he took out a home equity loan in 2010 to repay Ahmad $59,650 in order to appear the money was a loan with interest.

The latest Liu lies

From the NY Post:

Nice try.

City Comptroller John Liu was telling a tall tale when he claimed to have a letter from city ethics officials allowing his campaign manager to oversee operations at the Comptroller’s Office.

The only document Liu could produce yesterday was a memo signed by his general counsel, which does not clear Chung Seto — the architect of Liu’s political climb — to run the Comptroller’s Office.

The six-page memo purports to set conditions for Seto to “donate her labor and services” because “the parties desire to work together to further their mutual and individual aims.”

City ethics laws require that elected officials keep their political operations completely separate from their government offices, unless the arrangement is approved by the Conflicts of Interest Board.

Susan Lerner, an attorney and executive director of the watchdog group Common Cause New York, said, “This is a clear, blatant attempt to circumvent the city’s ethics law. You can’t exempt yourself by contract from the ethics law or any other law.”

From the NY Post:

Embattled city Comptroller John Liu’s campaign treasurer is trying to cut a deal with the feds over charges she steered illegal contributions into his campaign war chest, according to court papers filed yesterday.

Prosecutors “have had discussions regarding a possible disposition of this case” with lawyers for Jia “Jenny” Hou, but “the negotiations have not been completed,” the papers say.

“We plan to continue our discussions but do not anticipate a resolution before [yesterday’s] deadline under the Speedy Trial Act,” Manhattan federal prosecutor Brian Jacobs wrote.

From the Daily News:

Embattled City Controller John Liu has insisted he wasn’t involved with his campaign’s daily operations, but an email exchange shows he was meticulous and closely instructed his neophyte ex-treasurer.

He even objected to an instruction from the city Campaign Finance Board, all over a matter of style on a simple donation form.

Jia (Jenny) Hou — the 25-year-old former Liu treasurer charged by the feds as having played a key role in a conspiracy to duck campaign finance laws — was told by the CFB in 2010 that changes needed to be made to the card donors had to fill out.

The form contained multiple questions with corresponding boxes that donors had to check to affirm, as required by law, that the contributions were from their personal funds.

CFB ordered that a simple affirmation line be used, and recommended the accompanying language.

Hou — who was arrested last month in the ongoing federal probe of Liu’s 2013 mayoral campaign — responded by objecting in her boss’s name.

“I fixed the phrasing into exactly what you quoted in your email,” she wrote on Nov. 25, 2010. “John would like to keep the check boxes.”

The email messages, obtained by the Daily News under the Freedom of Information Law, seem to support the notion that Liu — an actuary by trade — nitpicked his campaign staff just like he is said to do with workers in his office.

From the NY Post:

It’s a bedrock rule of office that city officials separate their political activities from city business. All the more so for the comptroller, who oversees New York’s $70 billion budget and $120 billion pension funds.

But e-mails show Seto mixing both from Day One: referring financial advisers (and huge potential tax-funded fees) to the city’s pension czar, a Liu deputy; managing Liu’s official communications with the White House; even choosing decorations in Liu’s office.

Moreover, as The Post reported last year, Seto even joined Liu when he visited potential pension investors — where she presented herself as a top aide with a hand in making his office’s financial decisions.

This reputed “co-comptroller” may be next in line for arrest as the feds deepen their two-year investigation of Liu’s dubious fund-raising. Seto helped run the very campaign that the feds believe was a vast criminal enterprise that swallowed tens of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign cash from so-called “straw donors.”

The feds arrested Liu’s erstwhile campaign treasurer last month, but all indications are that she’s a small fish. Next up could well be the sharks: Seto and perhaps Liu himself.

Liu bundler in plea deal?

From the Daily News:

Manhattan federal prosecutors disclosed Friday that they are in plea discussions with a John Liu fund-raiser under arrest for allegedly funneling illegal contributions to the controller’s campaign.

Prosecutor Brian Jacobs said in court papers that the plea negotiations with an attorney for Xing Wu Pan were ongoing as he asked for a new court date in the case.

Jacobs said in the court filing that the discussions regarding a possible disposition of the case with Pan’s lawyer, Julia Gatto, have not been completed.

Federal Magistrate Judge Theodore Katz set the case down for Jan. 17.