Perdido 03

Perdido 03

Monday, May 4, 2015

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos And Son Adam Arrested On Corruption Charges

And so the second amigo has been carted out of the room in handcuffs:

Dean G. Skelos, the leader of the New York State Senate, and his son were arrested early on Monday by federal authorities on corruption charges, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Mr. Skelos, 67, and his son, Adam B. Skelos, 32, surrendered at the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York office in Lower Manhattan, the people said.

The charges against them were expected to be detailed in a criminal complaint filed in United States District Court in Manhattan and will probably include conspiracy, extortion and bribe solicitation, a person with knowledge of the matter has said. The accusations stem from a federal investigation focused on the younger man’s business dealings, some of which were reported last month by The New York Times.

The case against Senator Skelos, a Long Island Republican who was first elected to the Senate in 1984, signals a significant widening of a federal corruption investigation focused on Albany, and will almost certainly throw the legislative session into further chaos. It comes roughly three months after federal bribery and kickback charges led Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, to step down from his post as speaker.

Two amigos down - one to go.

That third amigo - Governor Cuomo - will be the toughest one to take out.

But do not forget that the executive director of the Moreland Commission, Regina Calcaterra, was feeding Cuomo's office everything that the commission was investigating - which means she had to be feeding them the dirt the Moreland Commission had on Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos.

Silver's arrest was based on, in part, information gathered by the Moreland Commission and word is the same is true of the Skelos arrest.

Remember that Cuomo made a deal with Silver and Skelos to shut down Moreland in return for an on-time budget deal.

It is unfathomable that Cuomo could not have known what the Moreland Commission had on Silver and Skelos, not with Calcaterra updating Cuomo's office in literally real time about the commission's work.

And yet, Cuomo still made a deal with Silver and Cuomo to shut down the Moreland Commission in return for a budget deal.

Now I'm not a lawyer, but it seems to me if you help sidetrack an investigation into corrupt officials and/or lawmakers by shutting down that investigation, you open yourself up to obstruction charges.

Second, Cuomo's office had subpoenas to his donors pulled back despite public claims that the commission could look at anything and anybody - including the governor.

That Cuomo wanted to keep his donors and himself from investigation suggests he had something to hide and I can't imagine a prosecutor like Preet Bharara would fail to see that.

If the feds picked up that strain of the Moreland Commission investigation, the likelihood is, Cuomo's got something to worry about it - otherwise, why have the investigations into his donors derailed?

Finally, Bharara is an ambitious man who made his bones working for Chuck Schumer - a politician who loathes Andrew Cuomo.

Rumor has it that Bharara may want to run for mayor of NYC or governor of NY State in the future - and there's no better way to pave the way for a political career then to take out the current one who presides over a culture of corruption so pervasive that both leaders of the legislature have been arrested on corruption while he was working with them to hide that corruption (i.e., closing down Moreland.)

If there were ever a prosecutor who might want to take the third amigo and actually have the guts to do it, it's this one.

We'll see what Bharara says later when he talks about the Skelos charges.

9 comments:

  1. Two down and one to go...

    Just saw the deceitful commercial on CBS Channel 2, spewing the privatization lies featuring Cuomo...

    Can't wait until Cuomo is taken out in handcuffs...the potential I believe is there to be so extensive, it will make Silver and Skelos look like minor leaguers compared to Cuomo.

    He should not only be handcuffed, but taken around and paraded before the people of New York as the criminal he truly is.

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  2. Their greed and insatiable appetites to benefit from criminal activities eventually get them all.

    Sometimes it just takes a little while longer.

    Democracy and the rights of the citizens of New York must be defended and guaranteed...the next step is the arrest of Andrew Cuomo.

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  3. Reading the Skelos complaint now in its entirety. There are spots where Cuomo looks good. Like when he banned hydro fracking when Skelos and Son were trying to get it passed so the son's company could benefit from the fracking waste water contracts. Otherwise, the wholesale provatization of everything in site by the politicians of the state of NY is fully on display....

    But yeah, so far, doesn't look like Cuomo got near the stink. Opposite in fact....avoided stink at every turn.

    I'm still hoping for something as I finish reading. Don't think it'll be there though. Cuomo comes off in this document as the one upsetting Skelos' criminal dealings and/or not near the stink. Period. It doesn't seen like he's next for an arrest.

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    1. ....and again as I read, Cuomo comes off as the good guy....not mentioning the water-related infrastructure that Skelos and Son wanted in there for their criminal enterprise. Cuomo looks like the guy fighting the potential corruption at every turn in the complaint.

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    2. If you're looking for "Official # 1" in the indictment, you're not going to find it.

      What you will find is that Leonard Litwin's bagman is cooperating with the feds - this was confirmed at Bharara's press conference.

      Leonard Litwin hands out money to pols on both sides of the aisle, but nobody was a bigger beneficiary of his largesse than Andrew Cuomo - even more so if you factor in the money gave not only to Cuomo's campaign but to the state Dem Party (which acts as an ancillary for the Cuomo campaign) and Kathy Hochul's campaign.

      Do not forget that Cuomo had Larry Schwartz put the kibosh onto Moreland Commission investigations into Cuomo's donors - including his real estate donors.

      You can bet Cuomo will not sleep well knowing Litwin's bagman is now a federal witness.

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    3. Fair enough. I want nothing more than to see Cuomo in cuffs....being a contrarian by nature I look for everything that indicates how my hopes will be dashed. If you are somewhat convinced that his number may come up, I FULLY defer to your analysis. There are alot of fingers crossed here throughout the state.

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    4. I posted more on Cuomo here, Anon:

      http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/2015/05/after-skelos-arrest-attention-turns-to.html

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    5. If the main money guy for any of these donors flipped, then Cuomo may truly be in trouble!!
      The last governor who broke the law and got caught doing so abruptly resigned. Then again, Spitzer actually cared about something other than himself.

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    6. Here are the details on Cooperating Witness 1 and Developer 1:

      http://thealbanyproject.com/skelos-rent-control-corruption-arrested/

      Developer 1 - Leonard Litwin - has given tons of money to pols, including $1.5 million to Cuomo and/or individuals or entities tied to Cuomo (like the state Dem Party and Kathy Hochul's campaign.)

      Litwin's company was in the Silver criminal complaint too.

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