Cuomo Closely Tied To Politico Indicted For Bribery/Extortion

Fred Dicker reported Governor Cuomo's close ties to indicted Western New York power broker Steven Pigeon in yesterday's New York Post, noting that Pigeon was so tied to Cuomo last election cycle that the governor had him attending both election strategy and policy meetings:

Cuomo was so close to Pigeon — charged last week with nine felonies in connection with the alleged bribing of a state Supreme Court justice — that he gave him a key role in his 2014 re-election campaign despite objections from more important political aides like Joseph Percoco and Larry Schwartz, who considered him “untrustworthy and a little sleazy,’’ a source close to the campaign told The Post.

Cuomo directed Percoco, the focus of an ongoing probe by corruption-fighting US Attorney Preet Bharara, and Schwartz, Cuomo’s former chief of staff, and a handful of other trusted aides to allow Pigeon to attend key strategy meetings at the campaign headquarters from which virtually all other political operatives were excluded, said the campaign source.

“They objected, but the governor forced Pigeon on them,’’ according to the source. “At first Pigeon started to just show up at campaign strategy meetings, even though no one knew who had invited him to come.

“But it turned out that it was the governor who invited him to be there because the governor had come to believe that Pigeon was some kind of a political genius,’’ said the source.

Cuomo sought re-election obsessed with racking up a big vote in Buffalo and Erie County, Pigeon’s bailiwick, which he had lost four years earlier to Republican Carl Paladino, the source said.

Pigeon, the longtime Erie County Democratic chairman, “was the guy who Andrew was taking counsel from as to how to win in Buffalo this time around, but he was also taking his counsel on broader statewide issues,’’ the source said.

A second source said Cuomo was so close to Pigeon that in 2010, Gov. David Paterson refused to allow then-Attorney General Cuomo to name a special prosecutor to investigate election-related corruption charges being made against Pigeon — because he felt Cuomo “couldn’t be trusted to authorize a fair probe.’’

“Everyone knew at that time how close Cuomo was to Pigeon,’’ said the source.

Dicker writes that Cuomo was partly behind the 2009 Senate coup by turncoat Dems that Pigeon helped engineer, with Cuomo and Pigeon in close communication as the coup unfolded and control of the state Senate went to Republicans after turncoat Dems like Pedro Espada and Hiram Montserrate threw their lots in with Republicans (both men ended up in prison for corruption charges unrelated to the state Senate coup.)

Just as Cuomo has tried to distance himself from his former aide and lobbyist pal, Todd Howe (now squarely in the sights of federal prosecutors for corruption), Cuomo wants to distance himself from the now-indicted Steve Pigeon and make believe like he barely knows him.

But the record, when fully examined, shows Cuomo was as close as could be with both Pigeon and Howe (see here how Howe kept showing up at Cuomo functions and/or raising money for the governor simultaneous to the time Cuomo claims not to know what Howe was doing.)

Same goes for Pigeon - see the Buffalo News piece on Pigeon from 2013 as well as yesterday's Dicker piece.

You can bet if investigators look real close at the Cuomo relationships with his corrupt associates - Pigeon, Howe, former aide Joe Percoco, SUNY Poly head Alain Kaloyeros - they will find some interesting things, some of which may turn out to be criminal.

Whether they go that far, well, that's hard to say.

But Preet Bharara has warned executive branches in the state that malfeasance in the executive will be rooted out.

So Cuomo shouldn't get to comfortable thinking all he's got to do to keep himself from scrutiny is just keep repeated "I don't know these people, I don't know these people..."

Nerves Rattled Throughout New York State Over Steven Pigeon Investigation

Bob McCarthy in the Buffalo News:

This is a nervous Sunday for political types around Buffalo and New York State.

The same pols who read the lead story in Thursday’s editions of The Buffalo News – the one reporting state investigators were mining reams of tips from the emails of political operative Steve Pigeon – must now be asking questions of themselves.

“Did I ever send an email to Steve Pigeon?” so many New Yorkers are asking today. “Did I ever ask a favor? Did I ever write something to come back and haunt me?”

It’s a nervous Sunday all right.

That’s because Pigeon, the former Erie County Democratic chairman and self-appointed power broker, has been wheeling and dealing around these parts for 25 years. And whatever he has conveyed via email during much of that time now rests in the hands of state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

“This thing has an unbelievable number of tentacles,” said one source familiar with the situation.

Maybe that’s why it took almost a year for Schneiderman, the State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the FBI to figure out just what they had when they hauled computers out of Pigeon’s waterfront condo (and the homes of fellow operatives Steve Casey and Chris Grant) back on May 28.

And if Pigeon is the saving type who kept all his emails, the Schneiderman crew has spent the last year reading some most interesting stuff.

According to McCarthy, we're probably looking at bribery charges against Pigeon and State Supreme Court Justice John Michalek.

But given the "tentacles" that emanate from Pigeon, it could get much, much worse for various politicians and  players around the state - including Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Just something to keep an eye on.

Cuomo Staff Tries To Keep Reporter From Covering Hochul Meeting With Kiryas Joel Leaders

Here's some news from the most open and transparent New York State government in history:

KERHONKSON - Satmar leaders heaped praise upon the lieutenant governor and governor Tuesday during visits by Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul to Orthodox Jewish girls’ camps in Sullivan and Ulster counties.

During visits to Camp Bais Rochel in South Fallsburg and Camp Rav Tov in Kerhonkson, Hochul watched camper performances, listened to speeches given by current and former campers, and met with Kiryas Joel Mayor Abraham Wieder and other Satmar community leaders.

Hochul and her entourage were an hour late arriving to Camp Rav Tov. In the meantime, camp staff welcomed press presence and sought to show off their campers’ model behavior. Hochul’s Chief of Staff Jeffrey Pearlman and David Lobl, Special Assistant for Jewish Affairs to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, tried unsuccessfully to have a reporter leave the grounds of Camp Rav Tov until after Hochul visited with campers. Lobl called the campers’ presentation before Hochul, which included chants, songs and thankful speeches about Hochul’s and Cuomo’s support of the Jewish community, “off the record.”

Photos shared on Twitter by the Village of Kiryas Joel’s Twitter account showed the village’s mayor meeting with Hochul and her staff at one of the camps.

Why would Cuomo's staff want to keep the press away from the Hochul meeting with Kiryas Joel leaders?

Well, there is this:

Hochul's visit to the Satmar camps came less than a month after Cuomo vetoed two bills that Kiryas Joel leaders lobbied fiercely against as a threat to the community's expansion plans. Within days of those July 8 vetoes, a Kiryas Joel man who controls Satmar land holdings in Monroe and Woodbury - including some of the vacant tracts contained in a pending 507-acre annexation petition - deposited $250,000 in the governor's campaign account through five limited liability corporations, records show.

Perhaps Cuomo's special assistant for Jewish affairs and Hocul's chief of staff were afraid she wouldn't be able to have an open and frank discussion about how much more Cuomo needs to have donated into his campaign if the Kiryas Joel community wants more payback from him?

Cuomo's New York State Of Crime

A commenter on the Bill Mahoney Capital NY piece about Cuomo taking $250K from the guy in charge of land development in the Village of Kiryas Joel in return for vetoing a bill that passed the New York Legislature with wide bipartisan support in both the Assembly and the Senate that would have given Orange County some say in the annexation of some land next to Kiryas Joel:

Apologies to Billy Joel but;

"I'm in a New York State of Crime..."

As I posted last night, Cuomo's campaign got the $250K in eight checks from four different LLC's all linked to the same guy who's in charge of land development in Kiryas Joel and owns quite a bit of the land Kiryas Joel wants to annex into the village.

The checks came a few days after Cuomo vetoed legislation that would have allowed the county to review the controversial land annexation plans Kiryas Joel has for hundreds of acres adjacent to the village.

 

Here's how the Times-Record covered the story before it was revealed Cuomo's campaign was paid $250K from the land development guy in Kiryas Joel:

 

Cuomo, lobbied fiercely by both supporters and opponents of Kiryas Joel's potential expansion, waited until around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday - less than two hours before his deadline - to announce his veto. He said in his message that the measure would violate the state constitution by giving counties "control over local annexation petitions that would not impact a county's boundaries," an argument Kiryas Joel's attorneys also had made.

 

Skoufis, D-Woodbury, called Cuomo's reasoning "flat-out wrong" on Thursday, pointing out that the clause in the constitution about annexations specifically says that "the consent of the governing board of a county shall be required only where a boundary of the county is affected." He noted that his bill didn't involve the county's governing board - the Legislature - and didn't require consent, since county planners would only have made recommendations.

“Sadly, Governor Cuomo's veto message appears to be nothing more than fabricated reasoning to reach a predetermined outcome," he said in a statement. "It is extremely disappointing that the governor chose to ignore the voices of thousands of residents from every municipality in Orange County.”

"Fabricated reasoning to reach a predetermined outcome" - that's a statement that applies to much of Andrew Cuomo's record as governor of New York.

 

Here's how Kiryas Joel officials reacted to news of the veto:

 

Kiryas Joel officials applauded Cuomo on Thursday, contending the bills were intended to prevent Kiryas Joel's expansion and would have hindered other annexation efforts in New York.

“We appreciate that Governor Cuomo was able to see through the angry rhetoric being advanced by Assemblyman Skoufis and looked at these bills for what they really were, a thinly veiled attempt to stop the natural growth of the peaceful, family-oriented community of Kiryas Joel,” said Ari Felberman, the village's government relations coordinator.

That's right, Governor Cuomo was able to see through the angry rhetoric being advanced by Assemblyman Skoufis and understand that if he did the right thing and veto these bills, he would, you know, have God's light shine on him - as well as some cash.

Here's how Assemblyman Skoufis responded to news of the veto:

 

Skoufis lamented that Cuomo "decided to play politics with the Hudson Valley" by blocking the bills.

"This bipartisan legislation would have provided significantly increased scrutiny of the current Kiryas Joel-initiated bids as well as all future controversial annexation proposals throughout the state," he said.

Yes, but vetoing the bills would have provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to Governor Cuomo as well as potential future votes from the citizens of Kiryas Joel (some of whom apparently vote early and often, sometimes in both Orange County and Brooklyn.)

Andrew Cuomo is definitely in a New York State of Crime these days, what with the hedge fundie donations and fundraisers in return for the pro-charter and pro-education reform agenda, the Glenwood and REBNY cash in return for the pro-real estate industry agenda, the Hollywood donations in return for the movie and TV tax credit program and now the Kiryas Joel donations in return for the veto that will help them expand and make money on the deal (since the guy who donated to Cuomo owns a lot of the land in question.

Cuomo Takes $250,000 In Bribes In Return For Veto

I know, I know - seems like a hyperbolic headline, but read on:

A group of entities located in or tied to Kiryas Joel deposited $250,000 in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's campaign account on Monday and Tuesday, less than a week after the governor vetoed two bills spawned by the Kiryas Joel annexation controversy that leaders of that community strenuously opposed, according to the financial disclosure report Cuomo's campaign filed this week.

Cuomo's haul included eight $25,000 checks from four limited liability corporations that listed the same address in Brooklyn and that appear to be connected to Mayer Hirsch, a Kiryas Joel resident and former village trustee who oversees the land development arm of Kiryas Joel's main congregation. Three of the entities that made contributions listed Hirsch's home address in Kiryas Joel when they were incorporated in 2012 and 2013.

The remaining $50,000 came in a single check from a limited liability corporation that listed the home address in Kiryas Joel of Hirsch's son, Jacob.

The disclosure of the donations has further infuriated activists who supported the bills that Cuomo vetoed, one of which would have enabled Orange County planners to recommend approval or rejection of two pending proposals to annex 507 acres or 164 acres into Kiryas Joel from the Town of Monroe. Emily Convers, chairwoman of the United Monroe citizens group, called the sudden infusion of campaign cash an obvious payment for services rendered by the governor.


"For anyone to doubt for a second who Cuomo is working for and what motivated him to veto, look no further than this blatant purchase of an elected leader," Convers said on Friday. "When those opposed to an environmental oversight bill are screaming 'anti-Semitism' and paying off the governor, it's hard not to make that assumption. It's despicable." 

... 

Reached on his cell phone Friday afternoon, Mayer Hirsch said he would have to look into the contributions and couldn't discuss them until Monday. Vaad Hakiryah, the landholding entity he oversees, owns almost a third of the 285 undeveloped acres included in the larger annexation request.

Can't get more blatant quid pro quo than this - Cuomo vetoes legislation that Kiryas Joel residents want vetoed because it might curtail the village's expansion, then the fellow who oversees land development for the village sends Cuomo $250,000 via eight checks from four different LLC's.

If you're like me, you don't know much about Kiryas Joel - you can read more about the village here.

Let's just say that land acquisition is a big thing for the Village of Kiryas Joel and Cuomo did them a big favor when he killed legislation that might have kept the village from expanding.

Bill Mahoney from Capital NY reported on this first and you can read his story here.

There often aren't many comments on Capital NY stories, but this one got a bunch:

This can't possibly be true. If it were Cuomo would be a real crook......... he would have accepted a bribe..... it would not be ethical......... it would actually be criminal!!! How is that even possible??

...

Why isn't there an investigation into this? It's not coincidence that the Governor received money after his veto on what is probably the wrong reason or a reason the Governor thought wouldn't be noticed. It's illegal to buy votes.

...

 KJ should not get the annexation and Gov. Cuomo should be arrested if this is infact true.

...

A village with 93% Medicaid and welfare dependency able to buy and annex land from neighboring towns and our honorable Gov. gets 250K + for veto signature?

...

Corruption at its finest!

I'd say this is unbelievable except, having watched Cuomo closely for the last five years, I know it's absolutely not.

He took $250K in bribes from the Kiryas Joel land development guy in return for the veto that helps the Village of Kiryas Joel expand.

Preet, where are you?

Andrew Cuomo Continues To Cash In On His Memoir

From the Associated Press:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has already made more than $500,000 on his recently published memoir and now a recently filed financial disclosure suggests he can expect at least $150,000 more.

The disclosure, filed Friday with the state, shows the Democratic governor expects to make between $150,000 and $250,000 this year off the book. The memoir, entitled "All Things Possible: Setbacks and Success in Politics and Life," was published by HarperCollins last fall.

Cuomo's tax returns show he earned just under $377,000 for the book. The year before he made an $188,000 advance.

Cuomo's taxes also showed he made nearly $169,000 as governor and had some modest income from investments.

Cuomo's book is currently ranked 645,459 at Amazon.

As of April, there were just a little over 3,000 copies sold - and 13 audiobooks.

$377,000 + $188,000 + 150,000 - 3,000+ books sold  = a bribe from Rupert Murdoch.

Cuomo Gets $700,000 To Sell 3,008 Books

In the WSJ story detailing how Andrew Cuomo has tried to control an unauthorized biography that has been written about him and is set to be released soon is this:

The Democratic governor in April 2013 signed a book deal of his own with HarperCollins, worth more than $700,000. He planned a quick turnaround so it would hit before the 2014 election. It was slated for release before Mr. Shnayerson’s unauthorized biography went to print.

Mr. Cuomo’s book, “All Things Possible,” was a flop. His publisher had announced an initial print run of 200,000. To date, it has sold 3,008 hardcovers and 13 audiobooks, according to Nielsen BookScan data.

3,008 hardcovers sold out of the 200,000 initial print run.

Oh, and don't forget the 13 audiobooks.

For $700,000.

Nice work if you can get it.

Especially since Cuomo didn't actually write the book himself (staff did.)

How is this not a bribe from Rupert Murdoch?

Of Course The News Corp Book Deal With Cuomo Was A Bribe

Sometimes it's fun to go back and look at something you wrote in the past and see if you were right.

Back in 2014, I wrote this over the news that Andrew Cuomo would be paid $700,000 for a book he was supposed to write for HarperCollins, the Rupert Murdoch/News Corporation-owned publisher:

How many copies of this book do you think Harper Collins sells?

Do they think there's a readership out there for Andrew Cuomo's memoir?

Or maybe they think fans of Chris Cuomo will buy it?

Andrew Cuomo has the reputation for being one of the biggest asses in politics.

I can't imagine the book sells more than a few thousand copies at best.

So why did Murdoch give Cuomo at least $700,000 in compensation for this memoir?

Notice when the contract with Harper Collins was signed - right after his first year in office.

That was when Cuomo and Harper Collins Rupert Murdoch were still best buds (as demonstrated by how Murdoch flack Fred Dicker treated Cuomo in the NY Post.)

Even then, Murdoch had to know that few copies of this book would be sold.

This was a bribe from Murdoch to Cuomo in the form of a book contract.

I can't wait for the book to come out and see how many copies get sold.

I suspect this Cuomo memoir will be up there as a loss-leader, along with Murdoch's other great loss leader, the NY Post.

Then, when it was revealed that HarperCollins was going to run 200,000 copies foe the first printing, I wrote this:

A 200,000-copy first run?

Just who is Harper Collins (owned by Rupert Murdoch, btw) planning to sell this book to?

Let's assume Cuomo's family, friends and loved ones buy some copies.

Let's assume too that suck-ups who work for him buy some.

Let's assume Billy Joel takes $30 out of his drinking fund and buys a copy too.

And let's assume Cuomo's consort, Sandra Lee, forces people in her coterie to plunk down the money for the book to try and drive some numbers.

How many copies sold is that?

Now I've been watching the Hillary Clinton book sales closely, because she got a huge printing for her book too - much bigger than Sheriff Andy got actually, and her sales have not been too good.

Here's Politico on June 17:

Officials with Hillary Clinton’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, insist her book has fared well amid reports of weak sales, and that it’s succeeded despite a dramatically altered retail landscape since her last memoir.

The book sold roughly 100,000 copies from the Tuesday when it was released through the following Saturday, according to a Simon & Schuster source. The source added that the book, titled “Hard Choices,” is debuting at No. 1 on the Indie Bestseller List, which reflects sales at independent bookstores.

The 100,000 figure for “Hard Choices” includes pre-orders and e-books, the publishing sources said. Those figures get rolled into the first-day sales.

The New York Times best-seller list, which will be released Wednesday, is another metric people are watching to see how the memoir is faring.

The first 1 million copies printed of the book were pre-ordered by bookstores, although that figure does not reflect how many were bought by customers.

...

 People close to Clintonland also said the market for books has changed greatly since “Living History,” noting the closure of several hundred Borders bookstores and dozens of Barnes & Noble outlets.

Not a great start for a book that got a $14 million advance.

And it's gotten worse since:

There’s hand-wringing and finger-pointing at Simon & Schuster over the soft performance of Hillary Clinton’s “Hard Choices,” for which she got a $14 million advance, sources said — and which was replaced at No. 1 on the best-seller list this week by an “exposé” about Hillary and Bill Clinton.

The former secretary of state’s tome sold 161,000 copies in its first three weeks, according to Nielsen BookScan — but 85,000 of those were sold in the first week. That number has dropped sharply to 48,000 and 28,000 in subsequent weeks, with the most recent numbers due out Wednesday.

Simon & Schuster shipped an optimistic 1 million copies to stores. Hillary reportedly got $8 million for her last book for the publisher, “Living History,” which sold 438,000 copies in its first week and more than 1.15 million overall.

Adding insult to injury, the new book was pushed from the No. 1 spot on the New York Times best-seller list this week by Edward Klein’s story of the Clintons’ pained relationship with Barack and Michelle Obama, “Blood Feud.” A source close to Hillary has blasted the book, along with its author, as “dastardly” and a combination of “pathological lying, hate and just flat-out creepiness.”
“There’s lots of finger-pointing going on at Simon & Schuster” over the very expensive Clinton deal, a source told Page Six.

Another insider said sales of 161,000 for “Hard Choices” would be “OK” for a normal book without such a big advance and expectations. “It’s an OK number — it’s very solid — a good amount to sell in three weeks,” the source said. “And the book is $35, significantly higher than most.” Also, BookScan only measures 85 percent of the print market, and not e-books.

A rep for Simon & Schuster did not respond to a request for comment. Reports have said the early numbers for “Hard Choices” reflect that it will not sell enough to cover Clinton’s advance, or to sell the million copies shipped, which are sent on consignment, with unsold copies ultimately going back to the publisher.

Now that's the Murdoch-owned NY Post ragging on Simon & Schuster for the absurd $14 million advance they handed Clinton for a book that not too many people planned on buying.

But the Murdoch-owned Harper Collins is likely going to have a mini-disaster on its own hands with the Cuomo book, because it's hard to see how if Hillary Clinton could only sell 161,000 copies of "Hard Choices," Andrew Cuomo is going to sell 200,000 first-run copies of “All Things Possible: Setbacks and Success in Politics and Life.”

Now I dunno, maybe all the Chris Cuomo groupies out there go out and buy the book and make me eat my words, but I just have a difficult time seeing the $700,000 advance and the 200,000-copy first run printing from Murdoch's Harper Collins as anything other than payback for Cuomo's corporate-friendly policies as governor, in particular Cuomo's pro-charter policies which Murdoch loves.

Murdoch has long been known to use his media outlets to reward friends and punish enemies - he keeps the NY Post open and operating despite its losing hundreds of millions of dollars for just that purpose.

I can't see any business reason why Harper Collins would pay Cuomo $700,000 in advance for his book and print 200,000 copies in the first run other than paying him back for stuff Sheriff Andy did that Rupert liked.

So far, Cuomo has sold less than 3,000 books of the 200,000 copy first printing.

He's disclosed $188,000 in payments from HarperCollins on his finance forms, though we do not now whether he's going to get additional payments for the book despite the poor sales because he refuses to release the contract.

All of this matters because Cuomo is in the middle of taking on the legislature over ethics reform, including increased disclosure of lawmakers' outside incomes, while he refuses to be transparent on his own.

Cuomo says he doesn't have to disclose anything because he's not subject to the same kind of corruptive influences that legislators are - except that David Sirota at IBTimes reported on Wednesday that the Cuomo administration was lobbied on multiple issues by News Corporation both before and after Cuomo signed his $700,000 book contract with the News Corp-owned HarperCollins.

The book deal Cuomo got from News Corporation starts looking an awful lot like a quid pro quo arrangement and/or bribe from News Corporation to Cuomo when you see that the corporation got millions in tax breaks and other goodies out of Cuomo.

How is that different than former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, now under indictment for corruption, taking bribes and kickbacks?

NT2 says it's not in their latest post called "Monetizing The Office":

“Shelly was paid 700k and Andrew was paid 700k. What did they do for that money?”

“Silver facilitated referrals to a law firm and Cuomo wrote a book.”

“Both of them monetized their office.”

“Nah. That can’t be.”

“Really? Would Cuomo have got a book deal without being Governor? Of course not.

Nobody would read a book about him if he wasn’t Governor.”

“Well, nobody seems interested in the book anyway,” we quipped.

“Cuomo personally received $700,000 or more for doing what? He didn’t write that book. You know that. He’s politically smart, but he’s not a reader or a writer. His staff wrote the book for him and that’s another problem.”

“But lots of governors do the same thing.”

“And lots of legislators are rainmakers. You can make the case that Cuomo’s monetizing of the Governor’s office was more egregious than Silver’s because he used staff to do it and it produced less value.”

“Produced less value?”

“Silver received 700k, right? That was for generating referrals for the law firm. And what was the value of the referrals? If he got one mesothelioma case, it might have been worth 100k to the law firm. If he got two it was worth 200k. We don’t know how many referrals he generated.  Maybe it was half a dozen. Maybe it was a hundred. But you know there was some value generated. Now think about Cuomo. He and his government staff produced a book that was worth what?  Well, the book tanked. That means that Cuomo was paid $700,000 for nothing of value.”

“Isn’t this just a bad decision by the publisher? They thought his book would sell. They took the risk on it and they were wrong. That’s the nature of their business.”

“That’s true. But how did the book deal come together. Did he write it and show it to them. No. He got a huge advance and that advance looks like a sweetheart deal. He got a huge up front payment. He’s getting a cut rate on purchases of the book that he can then provide to his supporters for promotional purposes. He also benefits from the promotion of the book by the publisher. He’s making out like a bandit. He monetized his office, didn’t he?”

“When you say it like that, it’s hard to disagree.”

“And we haven’t even mentioned the other side of it. What benefits accrued to the publisher? How did News Corp. benefit? Nobody has looked at that. Nobody has gone back 10 years like Preet did with Silver. What did Cuomo do in office as AG or as Governor that benefitted News Corp.  Silver directed a grant to a hospital for cancer research in 2005 and they called it a bribe in 2015. What did Cuomo do for News Corp during the last 10 years? I’ll bet you could find something, no?”

“This can’t be.”

“This is the world we live in. If Preet can make a case against Silver, he can make a case against Cuomo.”

I'm still skeptical that US Attorney Preet Bharara is going to do to Cuomo what he did to Silver, but it sure seems if Bharara decides to dig into Cuomo's business dealings with News Corporation, he'll find plenty of interesting items to scrutinize.

This News Corp/book deal stuff is in addition to the Moreland tampering that Preet is allegedly looking into already, as well as the subpoenas to donors that Cuomo's secretary, Larry Schwartz, had "pulled back" by the Moreland Commission even as they subpoenaed legislative targets.

Cuomo's pushing ethics reform this budget, claiming he'll shut the government down if the legislature doesn't give him what he wants on ethics reform (i.e., ethics reforms that pertain only to the legislature, not to statewide officials like the governor.)

Here's hoping the feds shut Cuomo himself down with a 7 AM visit and a car ride to central booking over all the criminality he's engaged in.

If they could get Silver on this stuff, you can bet they can get Cuomo too.

But will they?

Cuomo Administration Caught Keeping Moreland Meddler On State Payroll

On Twitter, Cuomo Watch and I were just talking about Larry Schwartz, Governor Cuomo's former secretary (i.e., chief of staff), who has been accused of meddling in the Moreland Commission and had at least one visit with the feds over the matter:

@probacutor @CuomoWatch Anybody hire Larry Schwartz?
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) February 22, 2015

.@perdidostschool @probacutor Fantastic question. Larry Schwartz has been VERY quiet since Preet Bharara depositions. pic.twitter.com/NwkkZO0ear
— Cuomo Watch (@CuomoWatch) February 22, 2015

Schwartz allegedly left Cuomo's employ in January for a "private sector job," but no public announcement was ever made about what that job is.

Today we learn from Fred Dicker at the NY Post why there was no public announcement - it's because Schwartz is still on the payroll:

Gov. Cuomo’s former chief of staff, Lawrence Schwartz — who is under scrutiny in Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara’s explosive public-corruption probe and supposedly off the state payroll — is, in fact, still being paid an astronomical sum, The Post has learned.

Cuomo officially announced Schwartz was leaving state employment on Jan. 11, saying his top aide “departs the administration for the private sector’’ and was being replaced in his $181,560-a-year post — $2,560 more than the governor is paid and one of the highest salaries in state government — by investment banker William Mulrow.

Yet Friday, 40 days after the Cuomo announcement and with Mulrow serving as chief-of-staff, Schwartz was still on the state payroll at the same large salary, according to official records checked on Friday.

Schwartz is listed as serving in the never-before-seen title of “Dir of the NY Off’’ of the governor, according to the records.

While the records show that Schwartz did, in fact, give up the job of secretary to Mulrow effective Feb. 2, they reveal that he was transferred to the new title on the same day — with no announcement by the governor.

Schwartz didn’t respond to e-mail and telephone requests for comment.

A spokesman for Cuomo said Schwartz was “transitioning out of his role and has been on accrued vacation and personal time, which is standard.’’

But a state employment official called the arrangement “highly unusual’’ and noted that Schwartz’s new job title “was one I’ve never seen before.’’

Several Cuomo-administration sources said Schwartz, who was known as Cuomo’s tough-talking and often crude “enforcer,’’ had planned to leave for a private-sector job, possibly in the real-estate industry, but had been unable to finalize an employment agreement because of Bharara’s ongoing investigation.

“People are nervous about hiring Larry because they see him as ‘radioactive’ over the Bharara investigation,’’ said one source.

Another source said Cuomo, who has hired a prominent white-collar criminal lawyer to advise him on the Bharara probe, may be keeping Schwartz on the state payroll in “order to help Larry out at a time when Larry could possibly do the governor a whole lot of damage.’’

Why is Schwartz still on the payroll?  Why did they create a special title for him?  What's he doing in return for his salary?  And why wasn't Cuomo upfront about this when the announcement was made that Schwartz was leaving his secretary position?

Dicker may have the answer here:

Two sources said there had been recent tension between Cuomo and Schwartz over the ongoing probe.

Keeping Schwartz secretly on the payroll for $181,000+ a year and creating some jive title for him in order to do it certainly smacks of a "You take care of us, We'll take care of you" kind of thing.

Might even call this a Quid Pro Quo arrangement.

I wonder what the feds think about this arrangement?

Emma Bloomberg Wants To Use Bribes, Er, Political Donations To Ensure Pols Stay Education Reform-Friendly

From a Forbes article on ways to make education better comes this:

Emma Bloomberg

SOURCE OF WEALTH: Inheritance (her father, Michael Bloomberg, is worth $36.5 billion)

HOW SHE SUPPORTS COMMON CORE/COLLEGE READINESS: Chairman, Stand for Children, Leadership for Educational Equity

“Essentially, Common Core is bringing our education system in line with the way the world works today standards intended to help address America’s lagging international tech scores, our inability to produce college and career-ready graduates and the growing inequality in educational opportunity, not just among socioeconomic classes but among states.

“Philanthropists need to rethink how we’re engaging in these problems. So far I think we’ve done too little to engage families and teachers and to ensure that they have what they need to help kids succeed. Second, we have been too focused on trying to solve education through the sainted lens of charitable giving and not focused enough on the more gritty lens of politics. I’m increasingly convinced that in addition to funding great schools and great teachers, training programs and other educational interventions, we need to step up our political giving. We ask our elected officials to stick their necks out for our kids, and then we don’t support them when our opponents try to tear them down. They need to know if they do what’s right we’ll be there to make sure they don’t lose their jobs.”

In short, Emma Bloomberg wants to carry on the fine family tradition of bribing people to do what a Bloomberg wants them to do.

That's what "step up our political giving" means - hand out more bribes.

Quid Pro Cuomo: Governor Cuomo Took Campaign Donations In Return For Development Funding Awards

Jimmy Vielkind at Capital NY:

ALBANY—On a mild, drizzly September day in 2013, approximately two dozen people gathered in a private room of a downtown steakhouse for a cocktail party. There was a prominent local realtor and the founder of an economic consulting firm. The head of the city's largest hospital came with several of his top aides. Technology lobbyists and several executives from a company called nfrastructure, which builds information technology networks, mingled.

The host was Dan Pickett, nfrastructure's C.E.O. and a regular political donor. The guest of honor, Governor Andrew Cuomo, spent about an hour chatting with the attendees before and after brief remarks about the programs he's pushed to improve the state's business climate. According to campaign finance records, the Democratic governor reaped $67,000 from people and businesses in the greater Capital Region several days after the event.

For Cuomo, it was one of the dozens of events that helped him raise a record $46.9 million for his re-election. But for members of the Capital Region Economic Development Council like Albany Medical Center C.E.O. James Barba and realtor Bob Blackman, then a member of nfrastructure's board, the soiree marked the occasion of their first political contributions to the governor.

The event came several months before Cuomo announced the council had won $82.8 million, in part for projects around the eight-county region—a reversal after two years of being snubbed in the state's competitive funding process.

And several attendees, including council members, benefited from that win. The information technology company nfrastructure was awarded $750,000 to consolidate its growing operations at a single site in Saratoga County. The state also awarded $2.5 million for a plan to redevelop buildings adjacent to Albany Med in the city's Park South neighborhood, and $950,000 to support rehabilitation of a downtown office building where Aeon Nexus, a consulting company owned by another council member, was planning to re-locate.

Both Pickett and state officials said there was no connection between the awards and the events.

 We've seen this time and again with Cuomo.

He takes charter school donations in return for helping out the charter school industry.

He takes real estate donations in return for tax breaks for the real estate industry.

He takes Hollywood mogul donations in return for tax breaks that essentially pay for Hollywood to make movies in New York.

He takes gambling consortia donations in return for expanding legalized gambling across the state.

There is NOBODY in Albany dirtier than the Sheriff of Albany himself, Andy Cuomo.

When does this guy get investigated for bribery?

What Cuomo's Charter School Donors Want In Return For Their Bribes

The NY Times published a piece today reporting it's still business as usual in the cesspool that is Albany - the legalized bribes masking as "campaign contributions" are flowing like rhetoric during a Cuomo phone call.

Capital NY has a piece today reporting what Cuomo's donors want - here's what his charter donors want in return for the money their bribes, er, campaign contributions:

Charter School Supporters

New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany, an independent expenditure committee formed by the pro-charter organization Students First NY, spent $4.2 million this past election cycle to help Republicans re-gain control of the Senate.

The bulk of that cash came in the final weeks of the campaign and was given by a dozen donors, most of them current or retired hedge fund managers like Paul Singer, Dan Loeb, Julian H. Robertson Jr., and Paul Tudor Jones II.

The alarm about this sector’s given has been sounded most aggressively by Zephyr Teachout, Cuomo’s Democratic primary opponent, who has now mended fences with the labor-backed Working Families Party (which first floated her as a candidate but ultimately endorsed the governor) to take on wealthy charter school backers.

According to Teachout, these donors are trying to undermine public education in New York by buying support for charters. In her mind, this is tantamount to “legal corruption.”

Students First NY executive director Jenny Sedlis says that’s not the case.

“There was no expectation of any kind of specific policies being enacted,” she said. “But there was a hope that we could send a message that leaders who put students first have support.”

The main idea behind New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany was to provide a counter-balance to the statewide teachers union, NYSUT, which matched the pro-charter interests almost dollar for dollar when it came to spending this cycle.

But NYSUT’s (unrealized) goal was to help the Senate Democrats gain control. And, for the second election in a row, the union did not endorse Cuomo.

Cuomo emerged this past session as an outspoken champion of charter schools, and said prior to the election that he wants to the public school “monopoly” this session.

The governor has received contributions from some of the same donors funding New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany over the past four years, including Loeb ($60,367), Carl Icahn ($50,000) and Louis Bacon ($48,600).

A July report on Chalkbeat found financial support for Cuomo among prominent charter backers slowed somewhat this past year.

Some, like James Simons, who, along with his wife, Marilyn, has given the governor $105,000 since 2010 (making them No. 37 on the donor list), gave big money ($1.65 million) to the state Democratic Party, which spent heavily during this election on TV ads to bolster Cuomo’s re-election bid.

Some in the charter community want to weaken New York City mayor Bill de Blasio’s power over charter schools when the debate over mayoral control (which sunsets this June) takes place in Albany.

De Blasio raised campaign cash for the Democrats in their failed effort to take back the Senate majority, which did not endear him to the Republicans. The G.O.P. used the liberal mayor as a wedge issue in top races, warning voters against empowering his “far left” and “radical” agenda.

Others would like to see the state increase funding for charters and bump up the charter cap, though the current cap hasn’t yet been reached, or eliminate it altogether.

Bribes to Cuomo or the state Democratic Party apparatus which then spent that money on ads for Cuomo.

In return, more money for charters, an increase or elimination of the cap, and the "breaking" of teachers and public schools.

That's what charter backers want in return for their bribes.

Albany Remains A Cesspool Of Corruption - With Governor Cuomo At The Center Of The Rot

Sheriff Andy Cuomo convened "his" Moreland Commission on Public Corruption in order to clean up Albany - he told us so:



Cuomo of course shut "his" Moreland Commission in order to get a budget deal earlier this year, leaving much of the "clean-up" he had promised undone.

The NY Times reports this morning that Albany remains as dirty as ever - and the governor is up to his hairline in the dirt along with everybody else:

Now, eight months after its work was cut short, little in Albany has changed.

■ Powerful politicians — including the governor himself — continue to exploit a loophole in state law that allows corporations to funnel huge donations to them in smaller gifts that disguise the true sources of the money.

■ Lax personal financial disclosure laws, critics say, give corrupt legislators a way to mask political payoffs under the guise of part-time jobs. A 2011 reform presented as requiring disclosure of some clients was so narrowly drawn as to be meaningless, and another enacted this year allowed enough wiggle room that lawmakers could well continue to avoid scrutiny.

■ The line between political donations and outright bribery remains murky. Some politicians used their campaign treasuries as piggy banks for personal expenses, the commission’s investigators found, and bank records showed that lawmakers had failed to report some donations and expenditures altogether. A new, beefed-up Board of Elections enforcement unit has yet to show its strength.

Cuomo is essentially taking millions in legalized bribes by exploiting loopholes:

Mr. Cuomo easily won a second term in November. To pave the way for that victory, he raised about $47 million — much of it through the same kinds of enormous donations that the commission was building a case to outlaw.

For powerful politicians and the big businesses they court, getting around New York’s campaign donation limits is easy.

Emails that investigators unearthed between a fund-raiser for Mr. Cuomo and an executive at Glenwood Management, a developer of Manhattan rental apartments, show how it is done.

Corporations like Glenwood are permitted to make a total of no more than $5,000 a year in political donations. But New York’s “LLC loophole” treats limited-liability companies as people, not corporations, allowing them to donate up to $60,800 to a statewide candidate per election cycle. So when Mr. Cuomo’s campaign wanted to nail down what became a $1 million multiyear commitment — and suggested “breaking it down into biannual installments” — the company complied by dividing each payment into permissible amounts and contributing those through some of the many opaquely named limited-liability companies it controlled, like Tribeca North End LLC.

The Cuomo campaign reminded the firm later of 10 Glenwood-controlled LLCs that had already made donations.

A lawyer for Glenwood, Alan Levine, declined to comment. Ms. Lever, the governor’s spokeswoman, said his campaign “operates within the bounds of the current campaign-finance system.”

The torrent of money that flows into New York politics was a central concern for the Moreland Commission, and the LLC loophole was one of the most glaring weaknesses it saw in the campaign-finance system. Investigators subpoenaed several companies known to exploit it, including Glenwood and the Durst Organization, another real estate powerhouse.

Documents the investigators obtained provided unusual insight into what watchdog groups had long asserted: Corporations were strategically dividing up huge contributions to maximize their giving — and their influence. The use of limited-liability companies concealed the magnitude of their gifts from public view. 

...

Mr. Cuomo has collected more than $2 million in donations from limited-liability companies, according to campaign finance records. In all, the governor received more than $9 million from LLCs over his entire first term — roughly 20 percent of the $47 million he raised.

When Mr. Cuomo ran for governor in 2010, he characterized large LLC contributions as one of the campaign finance system’s “loopholes,” proposing that such donations be counted against the parent company’s $5,000 contribution limit, to make that limit “meaningful.” In June 2013, he proposed lowering that limit to $1,000 and applying it to limited-liability companies as well.

But Mr. Cuomo has also defended his continued exploitation of the LLC loophole — even if it meant contradicting himself. “Those aren’t loopholes,” he said in July 2013. “Those are the laws that are written.”

Just before his re-election this year, Mr. Cuomo renewed his call to shut off the spigot of LLC contributions, again using the word loophole. But he rejected any suggestion that he model good behavior by voluntarily declining contributions that exploited it.

Albany - as dirty as ever, with Sheriff Andy Cuomo up to his hairline in the corruption and rot.

Who Is The Intended Audience For Andrew Cuomo's Book?

State of Politics:

The publication of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s forthcoming book “All Things Possible: Setbacks and Success in Politics and Life” is being pushed back from August to Sept. 16, according to this publisher HarperCollins.

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning the book will receive a 200,000-copy first print — an unusually large run.

The book’s cover, also, was switched from a picture of Cuomo standing in front of a wood-paneled wall to a tighter portrait shot of the governor.

Cuomo’s financial disclosure forms and publicly available income tax records show the book deal is worth at least $700,000.

A 200,000-copy first run?

Just who is Harper Collins (owned by Rupert Murdoch, btw) planning to sell this book to?

Let's assume Cuomo's family, friends and loved ones buy some copies.

Let's assume too that suck-ups who work for him buy some.

Let's assume Billy Joel takes $30 out of his drinking fund and buys a copy too.

And let's assume Cuomo's consort, Sandra Lee, forces people in her coterie to plunk down the money for the book to try and drive some numbers.

How many copies sold is that?

Now I've been watching the Hillary Clinton book sales closely, because she got a huge printing for her book too - much bigger than Sheriff Andy got actually, and her sales have not been too good.

Here's Politico on June 17:

Officials with Hillary Clinton’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, insist her book has fared well amid reports of weak sales, and that it’s succeeded despite a dramatically altered retail landscape since her last memoir.

The book sold roughly 100,000 copies from the Tuesday when it was released through the following Saturday, according to a Simon & Schuster source. The source added that the book, titled “Hard Choices,” is debuting at No. 1 on the Indie Bestseller List, which reflects sales at independent bookstores.

The 100,000 figure for “Hard Choices” includes pre-orders and e-books, the publishing sources said. Those figures get rolled into the first-day sales.

The New York Times best-seller list, which will be released Wednesday, is another metric people are watching to see how the memoir is faring.

The first 1 million copies printed of the book were pre-ordered by bookstores, although that figure does not reflect how many were bought by customers.

...

 People close to Clintonland also said the market for books has changed greatly since “Living History,” noting the closure of several hundred Borders bookstores and dozens of Barnes & Noble outlets.

Not a great start for a book that got a $14 million advance.

And it's gotten worse since:

There’s hand-wringing and finger-pointing at Simon & Schuster over the soft performance of Hillary Clinton’s “Hard Choices,” for which she got a $14 million advance, sources said — and which was replaced at No. 1 on the best-seller list this week by an “exposé” about Hillary and Bill Clinton.

The former secretary of state’s tome sold 161,000 copies in its first three weeks, according to Nielsen BookScan — but 85,000 of those were sold in the first week. That number has dropped sharply to 48,000 and 28,000 in subsequent weeks, with the most recent numbers due out Wednesday.

Simon & Schuster shipped an optimistic 1 million copies to stores. Hillary reportedly got $8 million for her last book for the publisher, “Living History,” which sold 438,000 copies in its first week and more than 1.15 million overall.

Adding insult to injury, the new book was pushed from the No. 1 spot on the New York Times best-seller list this week by Edward Klein’s story of the Clintons’ pained relationship with Barack and Michelle Obama, “Blood Feud.” A source close to Hillary has blasted the book, along with its author, as “dastardly” and a combination of “pathological lying, hate and just flat-out creepiness.”
“There’s lots of finger-pointing going on at Simon & Schuster” over the very expensive Clinton deal, a source told Page Six.

Another insider said sales of 161,000 for “Hard Choices” would be “OK” for a normal book without such a big advance and expectations. “It’s an OK number — it’s very solid — a good amount to sell in three weeks,” the source said. “And the book is $35, significantly higher than most.” Also, BookScan only measures 85 percent of the print market, and not e-books.

A rep for Simon & Schuster did not respond to a request for comment. Reports have said the early numbers for “Hard Choices” reflect that it will not sell enough to cover Clinton’s advance, or to sell the million copies shipped, which are sent on consignment, with unsold copies ultimately going back to the publisher.

Now that's the Murdoch-owned NY Post ragging on Simon & Schuster for the absurd $14 million advance they handed Clinton for a book that not too many people planned on buying.

But the Murdoch-owned Harper Collins is likely going to have a mini-disaster on its own hands with the Cuomo book, because it's hard to see how if Hillary Clinton could only sell 161,000 copies of "Hard Choices," Andrew Cuomo is going to sell 200,000 first-run copies of “All Things Possible: Setbacks and Success in Politics and Life.”

Now I dunno, maybe all the Chris Cuomo groupies out there go out and buy the book and make me eat my words, but I just have a difficult time seeing the $700,000 advance and the 200,000-copy first run printing from Murdoch's Harper Collins as anything other than payback for Cuomo's corporate-friendly policies as governor, in particular Cuomo's pro-charter policies which Murdoch loves.

Murdoch has long been known to use his media outlets to reward friends and punish enemies - he keeps the NY Post open and operating despite its losing hundreds of millions of dollars for just that purpose.

I can't see any business reason why Harper Collins would pay Cuomo $700,000 in advance for his book and print 200,000 copies in the first run other than paying him back for stuff Sheriff Andy did that Rupert liked.

Why Is Andrew Cuomo Being Paid So Much Money For His Memoir?

This is an awful lot of money for a book that nobody is going to read, let alone buy:

Gov. Cuomo’s memoir doesn’t hit bookstores until August but he’s already reaping the fiscal rewards.

Cuomo’s 2013 tax return – which was made available to reporters Tuesday afternoon - shows he received $188,333 from the first installment of his book advance. The advance boosted his adjusted gross income to $358,448, nearly double the amount of the previous year. The governor also paid $35,127 in legal fees related to the book.

The 384 page book, “All Things Possible: Setbacks and Success in Politics and Life,” is scheduled to be released Aug 5. Administration officials declined to say how many more advances the governor would receive from publisher HarperCollins.

Guess who owns the publisher which is putting Cuomo's memoir out and paying him so much cash for it?

You guessed it - Andy's old pal, Rupert Murdoch.

A vanity project for sure, meant to pay Cuomo back for his corporate-friendly policies with some cash and some p.r.

Cuomo's not the first politician to get paid cash for a book that no one's going to read or buy.

And $188,000+ is nowhere near a record for an advance to a politician for a book.

But it still raises my bullshit meter because I can't imagine HarperCollins sells many of Sheriff Andy's memoir.

Maybe Somebody Should Look Into Bloomberg's Bribe Money?

Buzzfeed:

One of Mike Bloomberg’s signal accomplishments in New York City was reversing the flow of corruption. In the old days, and in every other city in the world most days, favor-seekers bribe politicians — with cash in envelopes, with legal contributions, or with political support. In Mike Bloomerg’s New York, the mayor bribed you, buying the silence or cooperation of individuals, cultural organizations, and social service groups with hundreds in millions of dollars spent on small personal favors — a legal payment here, a medical procedure there — and charitable contributions.

Bribery is still bribery, whether it's old school bribery with the bribes going to the politicians or the new school/Bloomberg school bribery where the mayor bribed people into silence and/or cooperation.

Alas, Bloomberg hasn't been exposed as the crook he is.

Perhaps it has something to do with some of those bribes heading into the hands of journalists as they roll onto the Bloomberg News/Bloomberg Views/Bloomberg Businessweek payroll.

Perhaps it has something to do with Bloomberg's fellow media owners of the Times, Post, Journal, News, et al. not wanting to expose a fellow plutocrat.

Either way, Bloomberg spent hundreds of millions if not more bribing people into silence.

And we'll never know how many people were on his payroll or just what was left unexposed or unchallenged because of all his largesse.

Media Plutocrats Aim Daily At De Blasio, James

The Post has more negative stories about Bill de Blasio out today.

The Daily News has a negative editorial out about Tish James today.

Every day in the papers, the media plutocrats who own the Post, Daily News and Times - Bloomberg's fellow newspaper buddies and friends from his social circle - take aim at these two candidates for mayor and public advocate respectively with story after story meant to drive down their support and their approval ratings.

Even if the media plutocrats are not successful at helping their guys, Joe Lhota and Dan Squadron, win their respective races, the media plutocrats have another strategy in mind:

To undermine de Blasio and James with b.s. story after b.s. story so that, in the end, de Blasio won't be able to govern effectively as mayor and James won't be able to serve effectively as public advocate if they are each elected.

It's a cynical games these men play (and they are all men - rich, white, arrogant men, just like their pal, Bloomberg), a game they are playing for keeps.

We'll see in a few days when the next round of polls comes out in the mayor's race if their game is working against de Blasio.

I suspect that his numbers will be down a bit after the barrage he has taken in the press - particularly the Post.

And we'll see on Tuesday if it worked against James.

She has a lot of union support and the runoff for public advocate is expected to be a low turnout affair.

That may help her win despite the attacks.

Nonetheless, I predict that the media, along with the establishment in this city, will do to James what they did to John Liu this last cycle.

There will be some "scandal" that will effectively silence her, marginalize her, or worse, and put her out of commission.

That Liu's "scandal" - campaign finance fraud allegations over $7,000 donations - was small compared to, say, Bloomberg's campaign finance fraud bribing Independence Party officials three election cycles running with millions of dollars to put him on their ballot line, made no difference to the plutocrats and their functionaries.

Do what the rich, white men want or they will destroy you.

That is the message we learned from the Liu case.

The corollary to that:

Rich white men get to do whatever they want and nothing happens to them.

That's what we learned from watching Bloomberg bribe Independence Party officials with millions of dollars three election cycles running and manipulate term limits so that he could have his third (illegal) term.

The press will undermine de Blasio too, if he is elected and magnify every little issue, every little flaw.

They will seek to destroy him as soon as they can so that, even if he wanted to, he will not be able to undo Bloomberg's policies.

Meanwhile Bloomberg should be in jail with John Haggerty for what he pulled with his Independence Party bribes.

But he is feted in the media as a hero and a genius - the genius that saved New York.

Again, the message is - rich white men can do whatever they want but you had better do what the rich white men want or they will destroy you.

News Corporation May Face Corporate Charges In U.K. Over Hacking, Bribery

This news won't help the bottom line at Joel Klein's Amplify:

Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper division could face corporate charges in relation to the Metropolitan police's phone-hacking investigation, it has been claimed in a report in the Independent.

Two "very senior figures" at News International, now renamed News UK, have been interviewed in relation to the corporate aspect of the investigation, which is also examining allegations of bribery of public officials, it has emerged.

The allegations indicate that a new line of inquiry is opening into the Murdoch empire, which has potentially serious consequences for News UK, which owns the Sun and the Times. In an attempt at damage limitation following the scandal, News Corp was separated from News UK.

Such an inquiry would mirror events in America, where the department of justice and the FBI are investigating Murdoch's US parent company, News Corp, under the Foreign and Corrupt Practices Act, which can impose severe penalties on companies that bribe foreign officials.

Labour MP Chris Bryant, one of the most vocal critics of News International when phone hacking was uncovered, said the Met had told him they were "actively investigating corporate charges and that they were in correspondence with the American authorities, the FBI".

Bryant said the law in the UK was now as tough as in the US, due to the enactment of the Bribery Act 2010: "Under the Bribery act, the body corporate can have charges laid against it if its corporate governance was so reckless as to be negligent."

The old News Corporation has been broken up into two entities - the entertainment division (21st Century Fox) and the newspaper/publishing/education division (which includes Klein's Amplify.)

Any legal fees, fines and such that come in a U.S. investigation will come out of the newspaper/publishing/education division, since that was where all the hacking and bribery activity occurred.

More than 125 people have been arrested in connection with the various News Corporation hacking/bribery/corruption cases, with more than 40 facing criminal charges.

Rupert Murdoch doesn't seem to be all that concerned with any of this - he just purchased a 5% stake in Vice.

Nonetheless, the News Corporation bribery/hacking/corruption cases bear watching.

Cuomo Takes $200,000 In Bribes To Give $35 Million In Tax Breaks To Real Estate Developer

What else would you call this but bribery?

A top development company donated $100,000 to Gov. Cuomo just days before he signed a bill that quietly showered the firm with lucrative tax breaks.

Two corporations tied to Extell Development each contributed $50,000 to Cuomo’s campaign, which recorded the checks on Jan. 28 — the same day the Assembly passed a housing bill that contained tax breaks for five developers, including Extell, records show.

Cuomo signed the legislation two days later.

The twin $50,000 donations were made by Elco Master LLC and 134 W 58 LLC. Each listed the same Louisville, Ky., address of Extell Financial Services, which is part of Extell Development. It was the first time either company contributed to Cuomo, state records show.

And less than three weeks after the bill became law, Extell President Gary Barnett donated $100,000 to a state Democratic Party account that Cuomo was tapping to finance ads pushing his agenda. Records dating back to 1999 show it was the only time he gave to the state party.

The Daily News first disclosed the tax breaks for the five developers in June. At the time, the sponsors couldn’t say who picked the projects for special treatment.

The benefit for Extell’s 57th St. luxury apartment tower is projected to cost the city $35 million over 10 years.

Extell and the other four companies who benefited from the legislation have been subpoenaed by a special commission created by Cuomo to investigate corruption in state government, including the connection between campaign donations and legislation.The commission is looking at circumstances surrounding the bill’s passage.

Jaron Benjamin, president of the Metropolitan Council on Housing, called the timing of the Extell donations "disgusting" and said they should be also probed.

“It certainly looks like quid pro quo and if it’s not--somebody’s got a lot of explaining to do,” Benjamin said.

Cuomo's office responded furiously to any suggestions there was a quid pro quo here.

But let's look closely.

This Kentucky company wants $35 million in tax breaks.

They give Cuomo $100,000 two days before he signs those tax breaks into law.

Then the owner of the company gives the Democratic Party another $100,000 three weeks after the tax breaks are signed into law, money which is used to run ads touting the governor and his agenda.

Cuomo's office can say there is no quid pro quo there, these were not bribes from the company to pay back Cuomo for signing the tax breaks into law.

But they are full of it.

Cuomo still won't reveal the corporate donors to his Committee To Save New York, the group that raised millions of dollars and ran pro-Cuomo, anti-union ads when Cuomo was pushing through his "pro-growth" agenda early in his term.

We do know that the Committee To Save New York took $2 million from overseas gambling interests just before Cuomo signed an expansion of casino gambling into law.

That money was again used to tout the governor's agenda across the state and run ads saying Cuomo is the bestest thing in New York since DeWitt Clinton. 

Cuomo has been successful at hiding most of his campaign finance funkiness for now, but when he runs for president, these are the kinds of things that are going to come out.

I, for one, look forward to that.

Run, Andy, run.

Let's see you get some scrutiny.

London Police Investigate Rupert Murdoch For Conspiracy

From The Guardian:

Detectives are investigating Rupert Murdoch over comments he made in an internal meeting with journalists from the Sun that were secretly recorded.

The Metropolitan police want access to the recording as part of the Operation Elveden inquiry into corrupt payments to public officials, assistant commissioner Cressida Dick said on Tuesday.

It is understood that one of the offences being investigated by the force is conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.

Dick told MPs on the home affairs select committee: "We are seeking to obtain the tape of the meeting during which Rupert Murdoch appears to have been recorded. We will then assess the full contents of that tape."

She refused to be drawn on whether police had already obtained the full tape or whether they were seeking a court order for the media organisation to hand it over. "I am not prepared to go further," she told MPs.

The revelation comes as Murdoch was summoned to appear before the culture, media and sport select committee again over what he said in the March meeting recorded by News International journalists.

Exaro News, the website that published parts of the recording, said on Tuesday it was arranging to supply the evidence to Operation Elveden. Mark Watts, editor of Exaro News, said he was giving the police what had already been published on the website – three audio clips from the meeting.

Murdoch told the journalists that the culture of paying police officers for stories "existed at every newspaper in Fleet Street. Long since forgotten. But absolutely", and had existed long before Sun journalists had been arrested.

Murdoch also criticised the "incompetent" police investigation that has led to the arrest of so many of his staff.

Through a statement issued by News Corp., Murdoch said he welcomed returning to Parliament to answer their questions.

Interesting developments...