The leader of the New York State Senate and one of its most powerful Republicans, Dean Skelos, may soon be joining
former state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on the list of Albany politicians facing charges of corruption, two reports say.
The 67-year-old Long Island state senator and his son, Adam, 32, are expected to be arrested on federal corruption charges as soon as Monday,
The Wall Street Journal reports.
Both the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan and the FBI have been investigating the pair. The criminal complaint so far includes allegations of conspiracy, extortion, and solicitation of bribes, the Journal reports, citing an unnamed source.
The alleged criminal activity involves a real-estate developer and an environmental technology company — and the inquiry is focusing in part at whether Skelos did anything improper to help the business dealings of his son, the Journal reports.
The expected arrests, coming some three months after federal bribery and kickback charges led
Silver, a Democrat, to step down as speaker, would further disrupt the legislative session,
The New York Times reports.
The Times reports it isn't known if Skelos, first elected to the state Senate in 1984, will resign his leadership post.
According to the Times, prosecutors have been presenting evidence to a grand jury for several weeks. The senator's lawyer, G. Robert Gage Jr., met with prosecutors April 24, one source told the Times.
The Times reports Adam Skelos' business dealings reveal he's most recently been working for title insurance companies.
Prosecutors have been looking at a contract with AbTech Industries, a small environmental company based in Arizona that was awarded a job in Nassau County on Long Island, even though its proposal wasn't the lowest bidder, the Times reports.
AbTech Industries hired Adam Skelos as a consultant.
Prosecutors also were looking at a $20,000 payment a title insurance company, American Land Services, made to Adam Skelos, even though he never worked for that business.
Four men who held similar Senate leadership positions in recent years — three Democrats and one Republican — have all been the subject of federal indictments, the Times notes; two were convicted, one had his conviction vacated on appeal and was later acquitted, and one is still awaiting trial.
But charges against Skelos would mark the first time that the leaders of both chambers of the state Legislature have been charged simultaneously, Lawrence Norden, deputy director of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school, told the Journal.
The New York state Legislature is still working on items involving minimum wage, mayoral control of New York City schools, and a number of real-estate regulations.
"Is it a complication in Albany, in the process? Sure," Gov. Mario Cuomo said earlier this week, referring to the Skelos investigation, the Journal notes. "But there's always a complication. If it's not one thing, it's another. And the way I see my job, it's to deal with those complications."
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