Ex-Senate leader among 6 charged

Joseph Spector

Albany Bureau Chief

Malcolm Smith

ALBANY — Three of the last five state Senate majority leaders have been in­dicted or are in jail for corruption. At least 26 state lawmakers have dealt with ethical problems or criminal charges since 2000.

On Tuesday, another scandal rocked the state Capitol when former Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, was charged with being the ringleader in a bribery scandal to get the Republican nomi­nation for New York City mayor.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the case is indicative of a brazenness of New York politicians and a lack of transparency and oversight in government.

“From time to time the question arises: How common is corruption in New York?” Bharara said Tuesday. “Based on the cases we have brought and continue to bring, it seems down­right pervasive.”

Smith and the five others charged in the case — Bronx GOP Chairman Jo­seph Savino, Queens GOP Vice Chair­man Vincent Tabone, Spring Valley Mayor Noramie Jasmin and Deputy Mayor Joseph Desmaret, and New York City Councilman Daniel Halloran — were arraigned in White Plains fed­eral court Tuesday afternoon. Bail for each of them was set at $250,000; they are due back in court later this month.

Smith, once the first African-Amer­ican majority leader of the state Senate, is now a key member of the coalition of Republicans and Democrats that control the chamber. He became the fifth member of the Independent Democratic Conference shortly before the caucus joined forces with the GOP in December.

His spokesman said Smith would be cleared of wrongdoing. He was stripped of his leadership duties Tuesday, and the placards outside his office that listed his titles were brought down.

“The senator has a record of 13 years of dedication, hard work and integrity to the people he serves in Queens,” Todd Shapiro, the spokesman, said in a statement. “He has provided to the health, safety and wellbeing of the almost 20 million residents in New York. He will be vindicated when the all the facts in the case are revealed.”

Prosecutors said Smith was caught on wiretaps authorizing $80,000 in payments — some of it paid, the rest promised — to Tabone, 46, and Savino, 45, in exchange for their support. Since Smith is a registered Democrat, he would have needed the support of three of five Republican borough chairmen in order to get on the mayoral ballot.

The payments were arranged through middlemen whom Smith thought were real estate developers and agreed to the plot in exchange for $500,000 in state funds Smith had allegedly said he would secure. One was an undercover agent, and the other was an informant.

Halloran, 42, is accused of accepting $20,500 through the undercover team in order to set up key meetings with the party chairmen. He had asked to become deputy police commissioner if Smith were to win, prosecutors said.

Meanwhile, the undercover investigator and cooperating witness had posed as real-estate developers seeking to build a project in Spring Valley. Smith had said he could direct $500,000 in state funds to help fund the project, while Halloran had directed up to $80,000 in city funds to the undercover team in return for cash and campaign donations for a failed 2012 congressional run.

Jasmin and Desmaret are accused of participating in the scheme to transfer Spring Valleyowned land to the company building the real estate project.

Jasmin, according to the complaint, promised her vote in favor of transferring the land in exchange for an ownership stake in the project, while Desmaret allegedly accepted about $10,000 in cash bribes.

Smith was charged with conspiracy to bribe, wire fraud and extortion, while Tabone, Savino and Halloran were charged with conspiracy and wire fraud. Jasmin and Desmaret were both charged with mail fraud.

Halloran, Tabone, Savino, Jasmin and Desmaret did not provide comment as of Tuesday evening.

Bharara, meanwhile, highlighted a quote from Halloran as an example of the need for a culture change in New York state: “That’s politics. That’s politics. It’s all about how much,” Halloran said, according to the criminal complaint. “And that’s our politicians in New York. They’re all like that, all like that, and they get like that because of the drive that the money does for everything else. You can’t do anything without the (expletive) money.”

Bharara has handled a number of the recent corruption cases, leading to prison sentences for former Hudson Valley Sens. Nick Spano and Vincent Leibell, both Republicans, and Sen. Carl Krueger, D-Brooklyn.

“Every time a politician is arrested in New York, it should not feel like a scene from (the movie) Groundhog Day . And yet it does,” Bharara said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo called Smith’s arrest “serious allegations,” and said, “We have zero tolerance of any violation of the public integrity and the public trust.”

Cuomo prosecuted corruption cases as attorney general from 2007 through 2010, including the pay-to-play pension scandal involving former state Comptroller Alan Hevesi and his cronies.

Hevesi was released from prison in December after serving 20 months behind bars. He was released early after he admitted that he thought he wouldn’t be caught.

“I got arrogant,” Hevesi said during his parole board hearing in November. “I was a big shot in my own head.”

A report in 2011 by Citizens Union, a good-government group, found that 17 state legislators either left office or lost their seats due to ethical and criminal issues between 1999 and 2010.

The report is already out of date, with at least a half dozen lawmakers facing trouble since then. Last month, Assemblyman Steve Katz, RYorktown, Westchester County, was ticketed for marijuana possession. He serves on the Assembly Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse and voted against the legalization of medical marijuana. Cuomo has promised to rid the state Capitol of the dysfunction that preceded him. In 2008, Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned amid a prostitution scandal.

Cuomo and lawmakers installed a new ethics commission, but the panel has been widely panned. Albany’s history of scandal was even highlighted in the critically acclaimed movie Lincoln that was released last year. Secretary of State William Seward, a former New York governor and U.S. senator, told President Lincoln in the movie that he would call people from Albany to bribe members of Congress to pass a law abolishing slavery. “If procuring votes with offers of employment is what you intend, I’ll fetch a friend from Albany who can supply the skulking men gifted at this kind of shady work,” Seward, played by David Strathairn, told Lincoln, played by Daniel Day- Lewis.

JSPECTOR@Gannett.com Twitter.com/gannettalbany

Includes reporting by Albany Bureau staff writer Jon Campbell.

N.Y.’s troubled politicians: A roll call of difficulties
Since 2000, at least 26 New York lawmakers have run into legal or eth­ical troubles. Here’s a rundown:

2013: Sen. Malcolm Smith, D-Queens: Charged with conspiracy, extortion and wire fraud as part of a bribery scheme to petition his way on the Republican ballot for the New York City mayoral race; re­mains in office.

2013: Assemblyman Steve Katz, R-Yorktown, Westchester County: Charged with marijuana possession after a traffic stop in Albany County. Currently awaiting ap­pearance before judge; remains in office.

2012: Assemblyman Vito Lopez, D-Brooklyn: Part of an Assembly set­tlement after he was ac­cused of sexually harass­ing at least four female employees. Currently the subject of probes by the Joint Commission on Pub­lic Ethics and a special prosecutor; remains in of­fice.

2012: Former Sen. Nicholas Spano, R-Yon­kers: Pleaded guilty to federal tax charges after failing to pay $45,000 be­tween 2000 and 2008. Cur­rently serving prison sen­tence in Brooklyn.

2012: Sen. Shirley Huntley, D-Queens: Lost re-election bid after she was indicted on federal fraud embezzlement charges. Pleaded guilty in January 2013 of embez­zling $87,700 in public funds for personal use. In February, pleaded guilty to separate plea as part of attempted cover-up.

2011: Assemblyman William Boyland, D-Brooklyn: First indicted — and later acquitted — on federal corruption charges as part of a dec­ade- long bribery scheme. Currently facing sepa­rate charges of soliciting $250,000 while his first case was in trial. Charged in 2013 of falsely collect­ing tens of thousands of dollars of travel vouchers for trips to Albany.

2011: Sen. Carl Kruger, D-Brooklyn: Pleaded guilty to bribery charges for collecting about $1 million in payments from businesses that had deal­ings with the state.

2010: Sen. Pedro Espa­da, D-Bronx: Lost pri­mary in September fol­lowing corruption inves­tigation and other ethical issues. Was later indicted on various corruption charges by the attorney general and federal pros­ecutors.

2 010 : Sen. Hiram Mon­serrate, D-Queens: Ex­pelled in February 2010 by vote of the Senate due to misdemeanor assault conviction involving his girlfriend.

2 010 : Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV, D-Manhattan: Convicted of driving while impaired and had his license sus­pended for 90 days.

2 010 : Sen. Vincent Lei­bell, R-Patterson, Putnam County: Resigned before end of Senate term and pleaded guilty to felony corruption charges. Didn’t seek re-election in 2010 and won election as Putnam County execu­tive, but didn’t take office. Serving 21 months in pris­on.

2009: Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio, D-Queens: Resigned from the Assembly after feder­al indictment. Pleaded guilty to single count of theft of honest services for taking bribes. Died in prison.

2008: Sen. John Sabini, D-Queens: Appointed head of State Racing and Wagering Board after pleading guilty to DWI earlier that year.

2008: Assemblywom­an Diane Gordon, D-Bronx: Found guilty of taking bribes; tried to steer city-owned land to a private developer in ex­change for a house.

2008: Sen. Joseph Bru­no, R-Brunswick, Rensse­laer County: Former pow­erful majority leader re­tired from Senate amid pending federal investi­gation for corruption. Was indicted on eight charges and was found guilty of two after trial. Conviction was vacated; facing new trial.

2008: Sen. Efrain Gon­zalez, D-Bronx: Was in­dicted on federal mail fraud and lost election as result of federal investi­gation; he later pleaded guilty to two charges of mail fraud and two charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

2008: Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo: Prohibited from partici­pating in the Assembly’s internship program after the chamber’sethics com­mittee found he had an “inappropriate personal relationship” with a 23-year-old intern in 2003.

2008:Assemblyman Michael Cole, R-Alden, Erie County: Lost pri­mary after being cen­sured by Assembly and stripped of committee posts due to spending the night in the apartment ofan Albany intern.

2006:Assemblywom­an Ada Smith, D-Queens: Lost primary election af­ter being found guilty of harassment; accused of throwing coffee in a staff member’s face. Was cen­sured by Senate minority leader for “a pattern of in­appropriate, unprofes­sional and often abusivebehavior.”

2006:Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin, D-Queens: Resigned amid corruption indictment; pleaded guilty to racket­eering after being arrest­ed on charges of embez­zling more than $2 million in state and labor funds.

2005:Assemblyman Ryan Karben, D-Monsey, Rockland County: Re­signed from Assembly amid charges of improper fraternization with in­terns.

2005:Assemblyman Clarence Norman, D-Brooklyn: Found guilty on three felony counts, in­cluding intentionally so­liciting illegal campaign contributions, stealing $5,000 donated to his re­election, and falsifying business records. Got one to three years in prison for judicial extortionscheme.

2004:Sen. Guy Velella, R-Bronx: Resigned Sen­ate seat after pleading guilty to bribery. He re­ceived a one-year sen­tence and spent 182 days in jail. Died in January.

2004:Assemblyman Roger Green, D-Brook­lyn: Pleaded guilty to two counts of petty larceny and one count of filing a false instrument (false billing of Assembly travel expenses). Ran for re­election and won. In 2006, he unsuccessfully ran forCongress.

2003:Assemblywom­an Gloria Davis, D-Bronx: Resigned after pleading guilty to taking bribes.

2000:Assemblyman Jerry Johnson, R-Nunda, Livingston County: Plead­ed guilty to second-de­gree attempted burglary; felony charge required resignation from office.

Gannett Albany Bureau