The Chutzpah Of Criminal Politicians Pushing Teacher Accountability

Rich Karlin in the Times Union runs down some of the week's criminal politician news:

Former Brooklyn Democratic Senator and one-time majority co-leader John L. Sampson has just been convicted on three of nine counts, including two counts of making a false statement and one count of obstruction of justice.

Being felonies, Sampson is out of office immediately.

...

Sampson, 50, was elected to the Senate in 1996 and came to statewide prominence in 2009 when he became Democratic Senate conference leader, sharing the top job with Malcolm Smith for the brief time the Democrats held a majority in the Senate.

Smith was convicted in February of bribery charges in an unrelated scandal. He had been voted out of office in November.

Sampson’s conviction was the second senatorial felony conviction this week.

On Wednesday former Republican Deputy Majority Leader Tom Libous of Binghamton was convicted of lying to an FBI agent. And the convictions come as the former leaders of the Senate and Assembly majorities, Republican Dean Skelos and Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, also face federal corruption charges. Both men were removed from their leadership roles last session but remain in office and are awaiting trial.

In addition to the convictions of Libous and Sampson on felony charges, US Attorney Preet Bharara added two criminal charges to the indictments against former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son, Adam, this week:

State Senator Dean Skelos and his son Adam had two new federal-bribery and extortion charges added to the buffet of corruption charges they were already facing this week. Adam Skelos was hired by a medical malpractice insurance firm that was then lobbying his father. A week after the new gig started, his supervisor wanted to set up a meeting to discuss the fact that "Adam Skelos had not reported for work for more than one hour during the previous four days," according to an updated indictment released on Tuesday.

Skelos called his supervisor back and allegedly threatened to "smash in" his head, adding that "guys like" him "couldn’t shine [Adam Skelos's] shoes." In case his desire to get paid without attending work was not yet clear, Adam allegedly ended by noting that he didn't have to go to work because his father was Dean Skelos. He then called up his father to complain that he was being harassed at work.

The company allegedly kept Adam Skelos employed because it was afraid of losing access to the state senator, according to the court documents. 

Skelos has set up a website where you can donate to the criminal defense funds for both himself and his son because, you know, they're innocent and are just having their reputations dragged through the mud by an overly zealous, overly ambitious U.S. attorney:

The purpose of this Fund is to assist in providing the financial resources required to mount an effective legal defense for Dean and Adam Skelos in recognition that a central strategy of the prosecution is to place the Skelos family in severe financial hardship and thereby put them at a strategic disadvantage in the courtroom.

Those who support the Fund believe in the personal integrity of Dean and Adam Skelos but, equally important, in the belief that this calculated and cynical prosecutorial strategy of breaking a defendant financially and manipulating media leaks must be confronted, and the only means of doing so is by providing financial support that allows for the retention of a strong defense team.

The Skelos Family Legal Defense Fund is inclusive, welcoming those who not only know, respect and admire the Skelos family, but understand that the basic principle of presumed innocence is being destroyed by deliberately seeking to force the defendants into bankruptcy and thereby prevent an effective defense. The courthouse steps are littered with the reputations of men and women who were indicted, then vindicated by a jury, only to find that a verdict of innocence left them destitute and broken.

Those who are part of the Skelos Family Legal Defense Fund will not let that happen to Dean and Adam Skelos.

Heartwarming, isn't it?

I don't know about you, but when I think personal integrity, I think of Adam Skelos and his patron dad, Dean.

A couple of years ago, I called Dean Skelos's office to lodge a complaint about the APPR teacher evaluation system and find out if Skelos supported a system where teachers were evaluated using test scores from tests that were rigged for high failures rates or a system where teachers were rated using scores from tests in subjects they don't teach or scores from students they don't teach.

The hack who answered the phone read off some boiler plate about state Senator Skelos supporting the accountability of teachers and schools, thus supporting the use of the APPR teacher evaluation system because it held teachers (and by extension, schools) accountable for student achievement.

Ironic that Skeos, who supported a rigged system of evaluation against teachers and a system that unfairly rates teachers using test scores from subjects they don't teach or students they don't teach, is now whining about having his reputation and career destroyed by an overly zealous, overly ambitious prosecutor unfairly targeting him, since he didn't seem to have much concern about any unfairness in APPR.

For years now, Albany politicians have been happy to use the language and rhetoric of the education reform movement to claim teachers are lazy, incompetent sots and/or outright criminals who need to be "held accountable" for their performances or fired.

Many of these Albany politicians are themselves lazy, incompetent sots and/or outright criminals, as the track record of the political leadership in this state shows:

For those keeping score of the Rogue’s Gallery:
Pedro Espada – arrested, found guilty, serving 5 years
Malcolm Smith – arrested, found guilty, serving 7 years
Tom Libous – arrested, found guilty, sentence pending
John Sampson – arrested, found guilty, sentence pending
Sheldon Silver – arrested, trial pending
Dean Skelos – arrested, trial pending
Andrew Cuomo – pending
“New York is Open For Business”

There has been a host of lower level Albany pols arrested, tried and convicted on corruption charges these past years as well, but I give you the above list to show you how rotten to the core the political leadership in this state is.

On that list you will find the last four state senate majority leaders and the assembly speaker either in jail, waiting to be tried or waiting to be sentenced.

The only pol on that list not yet arrested is Andrew Cuomo, the governor, but there's a theory out there, a pretty good one, that US Attorney Preet Bharara is working his way up the depth chart with Cuomo as his ultimate target:

These new charges (against Skelos) seem to be perfectly in line with Preet Bharara’s history of turning the screws hard on those he’s already busted. He gave disgraced former Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver new charges with a superseding indictment and then indicted his son-in-law for running a $7 million Ponzi scheme (his son-in-law recently copped a plea to those charges) just to make sure he got the message. When the formal criminal indictment against Skelos and his son was submitted, it also included a new charge that Adam Skelos had accepted $100,000 in salary and benefits for another no-show job arranged by his father.

Preet Bharara is not conducting a bunch of separate, unrelated investigations. He’s conducting a big one and he’s going about it much the same way he would prosecute a mob case. He’s working his way up the food chain as he busts and pressures the folks under the kingpin, flipping cooperating witnesses along the way. Now he’s indicted two of the infamous “three men in a room” and there’s only one guy left.

The pressure for one of these men to cut a deal just got ratcheted up a few more notches. Soon, there will be one fewer “get of jail free” musical chairs to land on. My money has always been on Skelos to flip first. (Silver isn’t likely spending $1.5 million on lawyers to cut a deal) These new charges just up the pressure on Skelos even more.

I wonder how well Andrew Cuomo is sleeping these days.

I have no problem being "held accountable" for my performance as a teacher so long as the measure of that accountability is transparent and fair.

I do have a problem when the accountability system is so complex and convoluted that nobody can explain it to me, when it is devised not as a true accountability measure but as a punitive measure to target teachers and help districts shed them quicker and easier.

I have an even bigger problem when the politicians passing this system into law and/or imposing it from the governor's mansion are criminals like Espada, Smith, Libous, Sampson, Silver, Skelos and, criminal of criminals, Andrew Cuomo.

It take a lot of chutzpah to push accountability for others when you're as corrupt and criminal as these Albany pols pushing teacher accountability.

But one thing we don't have a shortage of in Albany, other than corruption of course, is chutzpah.

New York's Rogue's Gallery Of Criminal Politicians

A commenter at Capitol Confidential runs down the Rogue's Gallery of criminal politicians we've had (or currently have) running our state:

For those keeping score of the Rogue’s Gallery:
Pedro Espada – arrested, found guilty, serving 5 years
Malcolm Smith – arrested, found guilty, serving 7 years
Tom Libous – arrested, found guilty, sentence pending
John Sampson – arrested, on trial
Sheldon Silver – arrested, trial pending
Dean Skelos – arrested, trial pending
Andrew Cuomo – pending
“New York is Open For Business”

The Samspon jury is in the fourth day of deliberations in Sampson's trial.

Quite a Rogue's Gallery in New York.

Certainly looks like Bharara's working his way up the depth chart, doesn't it?

NY Daily News: John Sampson To Be Indicted In State Corruption Probe

First DFER-favorite Malcolm Smith went down on corruption charges - now the Daily News reports that another DFER-favorite, State Senator John Sampson has also been ensnared in the criminal probe:

A prominent Brooklyn state senator is the latest politician snared in a long-running federal corruption probe, with charges expected against him this week, the Daily News has learned.

Sen. John Sampson (D-Brooklyn), once among Albany’s most powerful politicians, is the senator identified in court papers as asking ex-Sen. Shirley Huntley (D-Queens) to wield her influence on behalf of a businessman holding a Kennedy Airport lease in March 2012.

The businessman wanted to expand his lease, and Huntley arranged for him to meet with Port Authority officials, according to sources familiar with the case.

She allegedly took $1,000 in bribes, court papers state — and then wore a wire to record meetings with seven elected officials while working as a federal informant.

According to the sources, the FBI is examining a $100,000 “loan” to Sampson from one of his legal clients, Queens businessman Edul Ahmad, who is charged with mortgage fraud in an unrelated case.
Ahmad also delivered a $40,000 “loan” to U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Queens) in a deal first exposed by The News.

...

One of Sampson’s allies when the Democrats briefly had control of the Senate is Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Queens), who was busted in April for trying to bribe his way on to the GOP line in the city’s mayoral race.

Smith has denied any wrongdoing
.
Sampson was expected in federal court later this week as the latest big catch in a political corruption probe.

We're going to take a look in just a bit at all the politicians with connections to the Democrats For Education Reform who have been indicted on criminal charges, convicted on criminal charges or had to resign their offices due to scandal.

Sampson, if the Daily News story is true, seems to be the latest.

POSTSCRIPT: I should note that the DFERs once targeted Shirley Huntley, the disgraced former state senator who seems to have helped ensnare Sampson in the probe, in a primary once because she was perceived as being "anti-charter."

Cuomo Strokes Himself

Sad Andy Cuomo worried that the corruption arrests of State Senator Malcolm Smith and Assemblyman Eric Stevenson is taking the winds out of his "I, the Sun King, have made Albany work!" meme:

Tragically, I was not able (or, for that matter, invited) to be with Gov. Cuomo during the U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's #tawdrygraft presser on the case against Assemblyman Eric Stevenson. I'm sure that would have been some must-see TV. 

Cuomo's statement on the unsealing of the corruption complaint against the Bronx lawmaker does two things, and it does them in a specific order.

First, the governor reminds the public that as attorney general, he locked up a few dirty dealers himself. Then he gives Bharara & Co. a pat on the back for a job well done.

What's an AG-turned-governor to do, really?

It's reasonable to think he wouldn't be totally thrilled with hearing Bharara roll out his second bombshell investigation of this week by asserting that a "show-me-the-money culture in Albany is alive and well" after the four years Cuomo spent as New York's top legal authority before winning his current Second Floor office in a campaign that emphasized his will to restore integrity to the Empire State.

At the same time, given that very track record, there's no choice but to send a "we includes me" message about supporting the feds' probes of venal pols. 

Here's the governor's full statement:

“The allegations of public corruption by City and State officials revealed this week are appalling. New Yorkers deserve a government that is as good as the people it serves and the events of the last few days fail this and every standard of public service.

"As Attorney General I prosecuted numerous public corruption cases, including putting former Senator Espada and Comptroller Hevesi behind bars, and believe firmly that anytime the public’s trust is violated, we must act quickly and aggressively to hold the guilty parties accountable.

"I commend US Attorney Preet Bharara, District Attorney Robert Johnson and their partners in law enforcement on their dedication to prosecuting corruption at every level.

"Those of us committed to the public and honored to hold its trust have zero tolerance for the actions brought to light this week, and will continue to use our power to fight to ensure integrity and trust to government in New York.”

Three things to say here.

First, as I noted earlier this week, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo refused to put even one bankster responsible for the '08 collapse behind bars.

Not even one.

As the Times notes here, he investigated lots of the banksters, but he never pulled the trigger on even one indictment.

Perhaps he didn't want to anger his donor base before running for governor in '09?

Or perhaps he was too busy taking suitcases full of cash from them in hotel rooms?

Hard to know, but on Wall Street criminality, Cuomo was a zero.

Next, as I pointed out earlier this week, Preet Baharara has the same track record on Wall Street crime that Cuomo has.

Not one bankster responsible for the '08 collapse scalp in Preet's belt.

Not one.

These guys can bump chests and measure legal brief sizes over the political corruption all they want.

The fact is, they're putting guys who took $20,000 or $50,000 bribes behind bars while the guys at Goldman and AIG and JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup and BoA and Lehman and Bear Stearns who stole billions get off scott free.

Want to bump chests, fellas - put some banksters in jail before they wreck the economy again.

Finally, note the snarkiness from Celeste Katz on the Cuomo presser.

Can't say for certain, but it sounds like Little Andy is mad at her and had her barred from it.

For a guy who thinks he's so tough, these reporters do get under his skin, don't they?

Quinn Jeered At Candidate Forum

The NY Times reports tonight that Christine Quinn has been drawn into the Halloran/Smith scandal:

It was a dark chapter in Christine C. Quinn’s political career, and the City Council speaker had hoped she could leave it behind. 

But a snippet of wiretapped conversation abruptly resurrected questions on Wednesday about Ms. Quinn’s oversight of a controversial City Council earmark program, igniting the latest flash point in the race to be New York City’s next mayor. 

The wiretap, released on Tuesday in a corruption case that had nothing to do with Ms. Quinn, featured the voice of Daniel J. Halloran III, a Queens councilman, boasting that he could extract tens of thousands of dollars from the City Council to be used as a bribe. 

There is no evidence that Mr. Halloran took steps to follow up on his promise, and Ms. Quinn, a Democratic candidate for mayor, said on Wednesday that the reforms she had installed during her tenure would have prevented any such illegality from occurring. 

But that did not stop her rivals in the mayor’s race from accusing Ms. Quinn of allowing corruption to blossom under her watch, and forcing the speaker onto the defensive on an issue that has dogged her for years. 

At issue is Ms. Quinn’s oversight of a pot of Council funds, worth nearly $400 million in 2012, that she doles out to lawmakers each year, to use largely at their own discretion to finance programs in their districts. The system has provided the speaker with leverage to reward and punish lawmakers as she sees fit; she chooses how much money each lawmaker gets to allocate. But at one period during her tenure, in 2008, misuse of the funds led to a federal investigation and the arrests of several council Members and aides. 

The earmarks, often referred to as member items, have been criticized by civic groups, and Mr. Halloran’s suggestion that he could exploit the system was quickly seized on by Ms. Quinn’s opponents. 

“This has reached an unsustainable point,” Bill de Blasio, the public advocate and a Democratic mayoral candidate, said at a news conference where he called for the earmarks to be eliminated. “The system is broken beyond the ability of small reforms to fix it.” 

“These things happened on her watch,” Mr. de Blasio added, in case anyone had forgotten who he was choosing to blame for the matter. 

Mr. de Blasio’s comments echoed a statement from William C. Thompson Jr., another Democratic candidate, who said Ms. Quinn had failed to curb “a history of corruption and a broken system” of earmarks in the Council. A third Democratic candidate, Sal F. Albanese, accused Ms. Quinn of “abuse.”

The Times story says de Blasio may be as vulnerable on the earmark attack as Quinn, since he received over $5 million dollars in earmarks over his eight year City Council career.  But then the Times story notes this:

But Ms. Quinn may ultimately be more vulnerable to attacks on a different issue: her vote in 2008 to overturn the city’s term limits law and allow Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to seek a third term. At a candidate forum on Wednesday, Mr. Thompson called the episode a disgrace; Mr. de Blasio said the speaker had “undermined the democratic process.” Ms. Quinn, who defended her decision, was met with loud jeers from the left-leaning crowd. It was one of the most blistering receptions she has received on the campaign trail thus far. 

They should be hammering her on the term limit shenanigans over and over and over and noting all the damage Bloomberg has done in the last four years as a result of her actions.

No term limit shenanigans, no third (illegal) term for Bloomberg.

At any rate, it's good to see her receive a blistering reception from a lefty crowd.

She deserves at least that.

Juan Gonzalez: Malcolm Smith Scheme Dumbest Thing Ever

Juan Gonzalez gets this exactly right:

Federal prosecutors allege that state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) conspired to bribe two key Republican Party bosses in a failed attempt to capture that party’s nomination for mayor.

What could Smith and his alleged co-conspirators possibly have been thinking?

Did they learn nothing from watching a string of fellow lawmakers in Albany and on the City Council carted off to jail?

Did they imagine they could simply fix political races by passing tens of thousands of dollars in unmarked envelopes in shadowy meetings?

Even if this outlandish plan had succeeded and Smith had landed the Republican endorsement, did he really think he could win a Republican primary against far better financed candidates like supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis or former Deputy Mayor Joe Lhota?

And what chance would Smith have on a Republican ticket against any of the Democrats who have been building their campaign organizations for years?

Simply delusional. 

But having watched Smith just a little over the past couple of years after his various charter school scandals (you can see information about two of them here), he had gotten away with his unethical behavior and crookery for so long that perhaps he thought he could get away with this too.

Impunity breeds arrogance and it seems that Malcolm Smith thought he was both immune from accountability and was as arrogant as could be.

Bloomberg Claims Halloran, Smith Indictments Are Call For More Politicians Like Himself

Our unindicted criminal mayor, the man who finagled three elections via unethical and/or potentially criminal activity with the Independence Party, told reporters today that the criminal indictments of State Senator Malcolm Smith, City Councilman Dan Halloran and others on bribery and fraud charges are an example of why the country needs more "non-partisan" elections that elect politicians like, well, himself:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg today argued that the U.S. attorney's complaints against State Senator Malcolm Smith and Queens Councilman Dan Halloran present as strong an argument as any for nonpartisan elections in New York City.

"All of this comes out of the fact that we have partisan elections when cities aren't partisan," said Bloomberg today, during a press conference about education in Queens.
...

"If you go back to 2005, I think it was, I think I spent $7 million of my own money trying to convince everybody that we should have nonpartisan elections," said Bloomberg (who has very much played the partisan game when he's needed to, and contributed millions of dollars to the controversial Independence Party, which provided him a crucial non-major-party line to run on). "We are the only big city in the country that has partisan elections. The only one. ... But I could not get any newspaper or any good government group or any union or anybody to back it."

"Generally speaking, partisan elections deprive the public of the right to pick their own leaders because the only people that vote and the only elections that matter are the fringe group of whether it's one party or another party," he continued. "And maybe they make good choices, maybe they don't. But it's very hard to argue that it is democratic. It is not. And that's where all this craziness comes from."

Bloomberg is of course full of it on multiple accounts here.

First, as Capital NY points out, Bloomberg has gamed the election system more than once by changing party affiliation the way he changes tuxedos.

First he was a Democrat, then a Republican, then an "independent," then he was a Republican again.

If anybody has made a sham out of "partisan elections," it's our "non-partisan" mayor whose only allegiance is to himself and the corporate state of affairs.

Next, he's corrupted elections all over the country by using his billions as a bludgeon against anybody or anything he doesn't like.

The Bloomberg M.O. goes like this:

Agree with the mayor, receive Bloomberg largess.

Go against the mayor's wishes and the mayor's PAC drops a bunch of money into your opponent's campaign bank account and runs commercials against you.

The mayor's PAC has threatened politicians all across the country on a multitude of issues, most specifically gun control and education reform.

A billionaire soon-to-be ex-mayor with billions to toss into politics to influence elections for years to come is much more corrosive and damaging to the political system then two bit crooks like Smith and Halloran taking and/or receiving $50,000 in small cash bribes.

Finally, as I pointed out earlier and as the Capital NY article points out as well, the mayor has bribed Independence Party officials through three election cycles to put him on their "non-partisan" ballot line and fool people into thinking it's some independent ballot line rather than a sham front for Bloomberg.

Is that fraud perpetrated by Bloomberg, a sham that twice won him the votes that meant the difference between winning and losing the election) any less corrupting that Halloran and Smith's shenanigans?

It would be nice if the journalists covering him would call him on his b.s. to his face and ask him how his PAC, his Independence Party shenanigans, and his party switching isn't crazy too?

Hypocritical US Attorney Rings Hands Over Smith, Halloran Corruption (UPDATE)

US Attorney Preet Baharara expressed disappointment today as he announced the indictments of State Senator Malcolm Smith, City Councilman Dan Halloran, and others on bribery and fraud charges related to the 2013 mayoral race in New York City:

At the Tuesday morning press conference discussing the arrests of state Sen. Malcolm Smith and several others, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara repeated his plea for elected officials to redouble their efforts to fight the seemingly endless tide of official corruption in New York.


Bharara quoted extensively from recordings of several of the accused musing on the role of money in local and state politics — at its center, that is — and said, “After statements like this, and after the string of public corruption scandals that we continue to expose, many may understandably fear that there is no vote that is not for sale, no office without a price, and no official clean of corruption. Many may understandably resign themselves to the sad truth that perhaps the most powerful special interest in politics is self-interest.”


Bharara said it was time for leaders to step up to the plate, and compared what he referred to as “the public corruption crisis in New York” to the film “Groundhog Day.” (As he acknowledged, this comparison made Bharara’s press conference itself a little like the 1993 Bill Murray comedy, since the prosecutor used the same reference in March 2011 when announcing the arrests of Sen. Carl Kruger and others in another bribery scandal.)

But as Matt Taibbi pointed out back in 2011, Preet Baharara is himself implicated in the revolving door scandal between Wall Street regulatory bodies, government officials and Wall Street and has failed to hold even one banker responsible for the 2008 financial collapse accountable:

In the end, of course, it wasn't just the executives of Lehman and AIGFP who got passes. Virtually every one of the major players on Wall Street was similarly embroiled in scandal, yet their executives skated off into the sunset, uncharged and unfined. Goldman Sachs paid $550 million last year when it was caught defrauding investors with crappy mortgages, but no executive has been fined or jailed — not even Fabrice "Fabulous Fab" Tourre, Goldman's outrageous Euro-douche who gleefully e-mailed a pal about the "surreal" transactions in the middle of a meeting with the firm's victims. In a similar case, a sales executive at the German powerhouse Deutsche Bank got off on charges of insider trading; its general counsel at the time of the questionable deals, Robert Khuzami, now serves as director of enforcement for the SEC.

Another major firm, Bank of America, was caught hiding $5.8 billion in bonuses from shareholders as part of its takeover of Merrill Lynch. The SEC tried to let the bank off with a settlement of only $33 million, but Judge Jed Rakoff rejected the action as a "facade of enforcement." So the SEC quintupled the settlement — but it didn't require either Merrill or Bank of America to admit to wrongdoing. Unlike criminal trials, in which the facts of the crime are put on record for all to see, these Wall Street settlements almost never require the banks to make any factual disclosures, effectively burying the stories forever. "All this is done at the expense not only of the shareholders, but also of the truth," says Rakoff. Goldman, Deutsche, Merrill, Lehman, Bank of America ... who did we leave out? Oh, there's Citigroup, nailed for hiding some $40 billion in liabilities from investors. Last July, the SEC settled with Citi for $75 million. In a rare move, it also fined two Citi executives, former CFO Gary Crittenden and investor-relations chief Arthur Tildesley Jr. Their penalties, combined, came to a whopping $180,000.

Throughout the entire crisis, in fact, the government has taken exactly one serious swing of the bat against executives from a major bank, charging two guys from Bear Stearns with criminal fraud over a pair of toxic subprime hedge funds that blew up in 2007, destroying the company and robbing investors of $1.6 billion. Jurors had an e-mail between the defendants admitting that "there is simply no way for us to make money — ever" just three days before assuring investors that "there's no basis for thinking this is one big disaster." Yet the case still somehow ended in acquittal — and the Justice Department hasn't taken any of the big banks to court since.

All of which raises an obvious question: Why the hell not?

Gary Aguirre, the SEC investigator who lost his job when he drew the ire of Morgan Stanley, thinks he knows the answer.

Last year, Aguirre noticed that a conference on financial law enforcement was scheduled to be held at the Hilton in New York on November 12th. The list of attendees included 1,500 or so of the country's leading lawyers who represent Wall Street, as well as some of the government's top cops from both the SEC and the Justice Department.

Criminal justice, as it pertains to the Goldmans and Morgan Stanleys of the world, is not adversarial combat, with cops and crooks duking it out in interrogation rooms and courthouses. Instead, it's a cocktail party between friends and colleagues who from month to month and year to year are constantly switching sides and trading hats. At the Hilton conference, regulators and banker-lawyers rubbed elbows during a series of speeches and panel discussions, away from the rabble. "They were chummier in that environment," says Aguirre, who plunked down $2,200 to attend the conference.

Aguirre saw a lot of familiar faces at the conference, for a simple reason: Many of the SEC regulators he had worked with during his failed attempt to investigate John Mack had made a million-dollar pass through the Revolving Door, going to work for the very same firms they used to police. Aguirre didn't see Paul Berger, an associate director of enforcement who had rebuffed his attempts to interview Mack — maybe because Berger was tied up at his lucrative new job at Debevoise & Plimpton, the same law firm that Morgan Stanley employed to intervene in the Mack case. But he did see Mary Jo White, the former U.S. attorney, who was still at Debevoise & Plimpton. He also saw Linda Thomsen, the former SEC director of enforcement who had been so helpful to White. Thomsen had gone on to represent Wall Street as a partner at the prestigious firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell.

Two of the government's top cops were there as well: Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Robert Khuzami, the SEC's current director of enforcement. Bharara had been recommended for his post by Chuck Schumer, Wall Street's favorite senator. And both he and Khuzami had served with Mary Jo White at the U.S. attorney's office, before Mary Jo went on to become a partner at Debevoise. What's more, when Khuzami had served as general counsel for Deutsche Bank, he had been hired by none other than Dick Walker, who had been enforcement director at the SEC when it slow-rolled the pivotal fraud case against Rite Aid.

"It wasn't just one rotation of the revolving door," says Aguirre. "It just kept spinning. Every single person had rotated in and out of government and private service."

The Revolving Door isn't just a footnote in financial law enforcement; over the past decade, more than a dozen high-ranking SEC officials have gone on to lucrative jobs at Wall Street banks or white-shoe law firms, where partnerships are worth millions. That makes SEC officials like Paul Berger and Linda Thomsen the equivalent of college basketball stars waiting for their first NBA contract. Are you really going to give up a shot at the Knicks or the Lakers just to find out whether a Wall Street big shot like John Mack was guilty of insider trading? "You take one of these jobs," says Turner, the former chief accountant for the SEC, "and you're fit for life."

Fit — and happy. The banter between the speakers at the New York conference says everything you need to know about the level of chumminess and mutual admiration that exists between these supposed adversaries of the justice system. At one point in the conference, Mary Jo White introduced Bharara, her old pal from the U.S. attorney's office.

"I want to first say how pleased I am to be here," Bharara responded. Then, addressing White, he added, "You've spawned all of us. It's almost 11 years ago to the day that Mary Jo White called me and asked me if I would become an assistant U.S. attorney. So thank you, Dr. Frankenstein."

Next, addressing the crowd of high-priced lawyers from Wall Street, Bharara made an interesting joke. "I also want to take a moment to applaud the entire staff of the SEC for the really amazing things they have done over the past year," he said. "They've done a real service to the country, to the financial community, and not to mention a lot of your law practices."

Haw! The line drew snickers from the conference of millionaire lawyers. But the real fireworks came when Khuzami, the SEC's director of enforcement, talked about a new "cooperation initiative" the agency had recently unveiled, in which executives are being offered incentives to report fraud they have witnessed or committed. From now on, Khuzami said, when corporate lawyers like the ones he was addressing want to know if their Wall Street clients are going to be charged by the Justice Department before deciding whether to come forward, all they have to do is ask the SEC.

"We are going to try to get those individuals answers," Khuzami announced, as to "whether or not there is criminal interest in the case — so that defense counsel can have as much information as possible in deciding whether or not to choose to sign up their client."

Aguirre, listening in the crowd, couldn't believe Khuzami's brazenness. The SEC's enforcement director was saying, in essence, that firms like Goldman Sachs and AIG and Lehman Brothers will henceforth be able to get the SEC to act as a middleman between them and the Justice Department, negotiating fines as a way out of jail time. Khuzami was basically outlining a four-step system for banks and their executives to buy their way out of prison. "First, the SEC and Wall Street player make an agreement on a fine that the player will pay to the SEC," Aguirre says. "Then the Justice Department commits itself to pass, so that the player knows he's 'safe.' Third, the player pays the SEC — and fourth, the player gets a pass from the Justice Department."

So Baharara indicts these penny ante crooks like Smith and Halloran while letting the REAL criminals - the Wall Street and hedge fund crooks who did their best to bring the economy to collapse in 2008, enriched themselves off the bailouts, and continue to steal with impunity - to get off scot free.

And why not? 

Baharara hopes to one day follow his mentor Mary Jo White onto the Wall Street gravy train, then perhaps go back into government again as White has done, only to return to the Wall Street gravy train at some later date.

It is a joke for Baharara to ring his hands over the supposed failures of the political establishment to "step up to the plate" and rein in political corruption around the state.

Has anybody outside of then attorney general, now governor, Andrew Cuomo and current Wall Street pal Chuck Schumer done more to let the Wall Street criminals responsible for the '08 collapse off with impunity then Preet Baharara?

UPDATE - 3:47 PM: As if on cue, another financial figure and "watchdog" has just left her government post to enrich herself off the Wall Street trough:

Former top financial watchdog Mary Schapiro has become the latest official to trade a government role for a private sector job advising the industry she was charged with regulating.

Schapiro, 57, who was chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for nearly four years, is joining Promontory Financial, a Washington-based firm whose clients include some of the world's largest banks and other financial services companies.

The appointment is likely to anger critics of the so-called "revolving door" between US regulators and their former charges. Senator Elizabeth Warren, among others, has blamed "regulatory capture" for many of the problems experienced by the financial services industry in recent years.

Promontory was started in 2001 by Eugene Ludwig, another former regulator who headed the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Earlier this year, Promontory hired former OCC chief counsel Julie Williams.

The company is seen as a "shadow regulator" – advising firms on compliance issues. It received about $2bn advising clients during an OCC investigation into foreclosure abuses.

As I've written over and over, it's all rigged, folks.

It's all rigged.

Smith, Halloran Arrested For Pittance Compared To Bloomberg's Independence Party Bribes

When you look at the details of the alleged criminal wrongdoing by Dan Halloran, Malcolm Smith, the Republican Party operatives and the Westchester pols arrested on bribery and fraud charges this morning, you realize that there really wasn't a lot of money being thrown around.

The NY Times account has Halloran receiving $20,000 in bribes, negotiating $40,000 or $50,000 in bribes for GOP officials to finagle Smith's name onto the GOP ballot even though Smith was a Democrat, Smith complaining that the operatives were trying to shake him down for more.

Contrast those five figure bribes with the bribes Michael Bloomberg handed out to Independence Party figures through three election cycles, as chronicled by the Daily News back in December 2102:

Much ado about next to nothing, Mayor Bloomberg said of this series of editorials about the Independence Party. “What’s the big deal?” he asked.

To answer the question: The big deal is that a clique of political operatives with no claim to broad public support has played a powerful role in determining who runs New York — notably Bloomberg — while making dupes of voters.

By the thousands, New Yorkers have mistakenly joined the Independence Party when enrolling to vote. Intending to have no political affiliation, these voters instead checked the “Independence Party” box — empowering the group to exploit an illusion of popular strength.

Still more seriously, Independence leaders have exercised the authority to back candidates by stocking legally mandated governing panels with the names of unwitting people, many of whom have no idea they are listed as party members.

Bearing the earmarks of orchestrated fraud, the tactics represent a distortion of the democratic process as it has been established by state law and court rulings.

...

 

No New York official has built closer ties to Independence leaders or benefited more from their support than Bloomberg. He ran as their candidate in three mayoral campaigns, twice scoring votes on the Independence line that exceeded his margin of victory.

...

The history of how he secured the favor offers both a look at Independence Party power playing and an understanding of how determinedly the mayor courted the Newmanites. As you might expect, money played a key role.

Roll the clock back to 2001. Although Bloomberg opened what seemed the world’s largest checkbook, he was handicapped as a Republican running in a Democratic city.

Only three modern Republicans — Fiorello LaGuardia, John Lindsay and Rudy Giuliani — had made it into City Hall. All had succeeded by running as the GOP candidate and as the candidate of a second party. No dummy, Bloomberg reached out to Independence Party state Chairman Frank MacKay.

Word came back that Bloomberg needed Newman’s blessing. So the aspiring mayor made a pilgrimage to 60 Bank St., a West Village townhouse where Newman lived with his followers.

Among those in residence were Gabrielle Kurlander and Jackie Salit. The New York Times described the two women in Newman’s 2011 obituary as his life partners in an “unconventional family of choice.”

The Bloomberg-Newman meeting brought the Jewish businessman billionaire face to face with a man who was an avowed Marxist, plus a Jew with a record of making anti-Semitic pronouncements, plus an unaccredited psychological counselor who espoused patient-therapist sex known as “friendosexuality.”

Newman was in charge because he and his adherents had taken control of the Independence Party, an organization founded in the 1990s by breakaway Republicans. Now, he gave his stamp of approval — and the ballot line — to Bloomberg.

But trouble erupted when Newman’s firebrand ally Lenora Fulani declared four days after 9/11 that the attack was “all too much the result of how America has positioned itself in the world.” She added: “It is easy to forget that the attack . . . itself was an act of revenge.”

Bloomberg called on Independence Party leaders to disavow Fulani’s statement, announcing: “I will not campaign on their line, and I will urge people not to vote for any candidate on that line, myself included.”

Newman refused a disavowal. Bloomberg backed down and kept the line rather than heighten his risk of defeat. The strategy worked. He scored 59,000 Independence votes, almost twice the slim margin of victory that put him into City Hall.

No politician forgets numbers like that. Bloomberg was soon solidifying bonds with Newman.

Over the years, he contributed $400,000 of his personal wealth to New York City Independence Party accounts. He also gave a total of $650,000 to two causes run by Newman followers: the All Stars Project, a nonprofit that works with underprivileged children, and a theater group that showcases propaganda plays written by, you guessed it, Newman.

Meanwhile, the city Industrial Development Agency enabled the All Stars Project to buy and renovate a W. 42nd St. building with the help of $12.75 million in triple-tax-free bonding. The city is not on the hook for the debt, and the administration says the financing program is open to all qualified nonprofit groups.

Bloomberg pushed the deal over opposition from City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, then-Controller Bill Thompson, then-Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall and then-Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion.

The opponents cited anti-Semitic remarks by Fulani. Bloomberg, who had called the statements “despicable,” said they were not legal grounds for spurning the All Stars.

Thanks to the financing assistance, the All Stars have a modern theater complex that will be home in the 2012-13 season to seven shows, three of them Newman-related — including a production called “Carmen’s Place,” book and music and lyrics by Newman. Photographs of Newman adorn the lobby and offices that are viewable from the street.

In 2005 and 2009, Newman again gave the Independence ballot line to Bloomberg — delivering him 75,000 votes in 2005, less than the mayor’s margin of victory, and 150,000 votes in 2009, more than his winning margin.

 Meanwhile, Bloomberg was also working with state chairman MacKay, a former nightclub owner and talent agent who has prospered by providing clandestine help to the mayor.

In 2008, Bloomberg poured $1.35 million into one of MacKay’s fund-raising accounts. MacKay spent most of the money on consultants in a hidden attempt by the mayor to support the reelection of three Republican state senators. After the election, MacKay paid himself a $60,000 “consulting fee.”

In 2009, as Bloomberg sought a third term, he sent an additional $1.2 million to MacKay for the purpose of hiring Republican operative John Haggerty to monitor poll sites for election fraud — a task that was likely to prompt charges of voter intimidation.

By routing the funds through MacKay, Bloomberg kept the activity under wraps — until the Manhattan district attorney charged Haggerty with stealing $1.1 million of the mayor’s money to buy a house. Haggerty was sent to prison.

Seriously, compared to Bloomberg's criminal legacy with the Independence Party, the Smith/Halloran/GOP operatives mess is penny ante.

Count up the bribes Bloomberg gave to people in the Independence Party as chronicled by the NY Daily News.

$400,000 to the personal accounts of Independence Party figures.

$650,000 in charitable contributions to charities run and/or affiliated with Independence Party figures.

$12.75 million in tax breaks to a charity run by an Independence Party figure.

$1.35 million laundered through the fundraising account of the Independence Party chairman, which the Independence Party used to re-elect three Republican state senators.  The Independence Party chairman paid himself $60,000 for enabling that money laundering scheme by the mayor.

$1.2 million to Independence Party operatives to intimidate voters at the polls - $1.1 million of which was "stolen" by John Haggerty.

And those are the bribes and money laundering events that we know about.

You can be sure there are more behind the scenes.

Bloomberg has used the Independence Party to engineer three terms in City Hall, to re-elect three Republican state senators so that his policies would be promoted in Albany and has paid Independence Party officials and affiliates handsomely in return.

If Smith and Halloran have been arrested on charges of trying to rig the 2013 mayoral race, why isn't Bloomberg sitting in a cell next to them for successively rigging three mayoral elections and three state senate elections?

Well, you know what they say:

Steal a little and they throw you in jail.

Steal a lot and they make you Mayor4Life.

State Senator (And Charter School Founder) Malcolm Smith Arrested For Trying To Rig NYC Mayoral Election

Big news in the mayoral race this morning:

State Sen. Malcolm Smith and city Councilman Dan Halloran were arrested this morning on charges they were plotting to rig this year’s mayoral election through fraud and bribes.

The pols allegedly formed an alliance built on cash payments and fraud to get Smith — one of the state’s top Democrats — placed on the GOP mayoral ballot, sources said.

FBI agents arrested them both at their Queens homes shortly after 6 a.m.

...

As agents took Smith and Halloran into custody, the feds raided the homes of Bronx Republican Chairman Joseph Savino and Queens GOP Vice Chairman Vincent Tabone, who were arrested on charges of wire fraud and bribery. They allegedly agreed to take bribes to get Smith on the ballot.

Also hauled in this morning were Noramie Jasmin, the mayor of Spring Valley in Rockland County, and her deputy mayor, Joseph Desmaret.

All six are going to appear in White Plains federal court today.

At Smith’s home, two FBI agents led the grim-faced senator – in a business suit -- from a back door to an unmarked car.

Three FBI agents spent more than 30 minutes inside the home before arresting the powerful pol. A woman inside the home refused to open the door for a reporter.

After the agents took off, a Smith neighbor said "I'm glad he's arrested."

Love it - even the neighbor is glad Malcolm Smith is being carted in handcuffs.

Usually when the FBI and the police come for these guys, the neighbors are like "I can't believe this is happening!  He's such a nice guy!"

Not Malcolm Smith's neighbor - he's happy about the arrest.

And what was the plot Smith and Halloran had cooked up?

Smith was trying to buy off Republican leaders because he needed the party’s support in at least three boroughs in order to run as a GOP candidate without even changing his own party affiliation, the sources said.

“It’s incredible,” a source said of the alleged plot.

To get on the GOP ballot, Smith allegedly enlisted Halloran, a Republican, to set up meetings with party leaders and negotiate thousands of dollars in bribes. The money was masked as payments for legal and accounting services, sources said.

Halloran allegedly collected thousands in bribes for himself along the way, the sources said.

He is separately charged with taking bribes from a consultant in return for up to $80,000 in City Council discretionary funding.

The feds were already investigating Halloran when they got wind of the alleged ballot-manipulating plan in November, the sources said. Smith met with his alleged co-conspirators as recently as February.

FBI spokesman Martin Feely, reached late last night, declined to comment.

Noramie Jasmin, the mayor of Spring Valley in Rockland County, and her deputy mayor, Joseph Desmaret, are also expected to be taken into custody today as part of the probe — although it was unclear how it relates to Smith.

The Rockland pair is accused of taking bribes in return for approving the sale of village land to a private concern. In addition to cash bribes, Jasmin is accused by the feds of demanding a secret ownership stake in the company that bought the property from her community.

 Smith, of course is one of the scummiest pols in NYC:

Smith is facing heat for his ties to a shady Queens nonprofit, the New Direction Local Development Corp., which The Post found misused charitable funds intended for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Smith, representing much of southeastern Queens, was also involved in an embarrassing Aqueduct casino bid-rigging scandal, which remains under investigation by the FBI.

Never missing a chance to make headlines, Smith last year stunned the state’s political establishment by joining forces with Republicans to form a first-of-its-kind coalition to run the fractured state Senate.

By joining the Independent Democratic Caucus — along with four other Democratic renegades — Smith allowed the state Republican Party to keep control of the Legislature’s upper house.

Smith also once served as the majority leader of the state Senate, after Democrats captured control of the chamber in 2008.

Chaos reigned during Smith’s tenure and, by June 2009, two members of his conference had joined with GOP senators to oust Smith and trigger another crisis at the Capitol.

His brief period of leadership was considered a flop, and his Democratic Party subsequently lost control of the chamber to the Republicans.

 Let's not forget the charter school scandal Smith was involved in a few years ago:

School officials don't believe Senate President Malcolm Smith's claim that a charter school he founded was forced out of a public school into fenced-in trailers that resemble a prison.

"There was no reason to move to those cages," said Claude Monereau, principal of Middle School 53 in Far Rockaway, the building that housed Smith's charter school, Peninsula Preparatory Academy.

Monereau's comments follow a Sunday Daily News report that revealed Peninsula moved out of MS 53 into trailers on property being developed by one of Smith's top campaign donors. The developer uses the school as a selling point to hawk his houses.

Confronted by reporters, Smith claimed the developers' needs had nothing to do with the move. Instead, he said Peninsula asked MS 53 for more space due to expanding enrollment, and that MS 53 and the Department of Education turned them down.

DOE spokesman Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld said the school never requested to expand, and Monereau said there was no reason to move. Monereau said MS 53 had plenty of room when Peninsula moved out in 2008.

"Smith claimed the school moved because there was not enough space. That's baloney," Monereau said. "I don't know what they're talking about. Before they left, we walked through the building in June. We thought that they were going to stay."

"There must have been something cooking. How are you going to leave a school and put those children in those cages?"

Of course there was something cooking - money from Malcolm Smith's campaign donor going to Malcolm Smith for moving the school to his development to use as a selling point.

Smith also diverted state funds to the school as payback for campaign donations from board members of the school:

State Senate President Malcolm Smith steered $100,000 in state funds to a Queens charter school he helped found, the Daily News has learned.


The money was earmarked this budget year for educational programs at Peninsula Preparatory Academy Charter School in Far Rockaway.


Smith was a founder of the school, which was chartered in 2004, and an original board member. His spokesman said he divested ties to the school when he became Senate minority leader in November 2006.


Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Queens), a close ally of Smith's, is still listed as a board member.

In 2006 and 2007, Smith received a total of $12,000 in campaign donations from Steven Klinsky, who founded the school's management company, Victory Schools Inc.


Victory has been the school's management company since 2004, according to a company official. The charter school's latest tax documents show it paid $762,322 in management fees.


While there does not appear to be anything illegal about Smith's steering tax money to the school from local assistance funds that he controls, the move raised some eyebrows.


"I don't know if it's inappropriate under the law, but it points to the influence the charter school association has on the crafting of legislation as a real special interest," said Richard Ianuzzi, president of the powerful state teachers' union.

Smith had served on the board of the charter operator, Victory Schools Inc., until he resigned from it in 2006.

 

Peninsula Preparatory Charter School was slated for closure by the DOE, but parents sued to keep it open and won that battle.

It is still taking students for the 2013-2014 school year.

 

But it's founder, Malcolm Smith, is facing trial on bribery and fraud charges.

I'll have more later on this, but I wanted to make the connection between Smith's arrest today and his shady charter school doings in the past.

Politically Connected, Scandal-Plagued NYC Charter School Fires Teachers For Union Activity

It's stories like these that ought to convince people why union protections for schoolteachers are needed:

A scandal-plagued Queens charter school fired at least nine teachers Tuesday - via FedEx, union officials said.

Some of the Merrick Academy staffers who got the boot are chalking it up to a bitter contract dispute between the school and unionized teachers.

"If the board of the Merrick charter school is firing teachers because of union activity, then we're going to take all legal action against them," said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew.

Teachers at the Queens Village school voted to unionize in 2008 but they haven't reached a contract with Victory Schools, which operates the charter.

Gerald Karikari, chairman of Merrick's Board of Trustees, would not say how many teachers were fired and denied the layoffs were retaliatory. "At the end of the year, every teacher is evaluated on the way they performed," he said.

Kindergarten teacher Marjorie Berry, 60, one of the fired teachers, isn't buying it. "I was upset, because I put my heart and soul into these children and into the school," said Berry, who has taught at the school since it opened. "I just feel like I've been pushed aside like a piece of garbage."

Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed documents from a politically connected architect who helped design Merrick's school building in an ongoing corruption probe of several Queens politicians, including Merrick founders Senate President Malcolm Smith and U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks.

No reasons given to the teachers for the firings.

Notice given via FedEx.

The excuse given to the Daily News - teachers were evaluated for performance - is RttT/Gates Foundation generalized jargon that means nothing but always gets used in education deform propaganda.

And the teachers fired had voted to unionize.

Yeah, this is EXACTLY why union protections are needed.

The world Barack Obama, Mayor Moneybags, Bill Gates and the rest of the anti-union/pro-charter people want to bring is one where you get fired via FedEx with no reason given other than your performance has been evaluated and found wanting.

No details, no reasons - just you suck, bye-bye.

Maybe, just maybe, after a few more years under the corporate jackboots of Barack Obama and Mayor Moneybags, teachers in this city will realize we need an even stronger union to fight these pro-charter/pro-privatization/anti-union/anti-working and middle class politicians and business leaders.

As Brian Wilson once wrote, wouldn't it be nice...

Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200

Hey, look who just got lawyered up:

Embattled Senate President Malcolm Smith has hired prominent criminal defense lawyer Gerald Shargel to help him deal with mounting investigations.

Shargel, whose Web bio says he focuses only on "the defense of serious criminal cases," was hired two weeks ago amid a U.S. attorney probe into New Direction, a nonprofit founded by Smith and Rep. Gregory Meeks.

Shargel is also aiding Smith with a state inspector general probe into the ill-fated Aqueduct race track racino project.

Maybe Smith's defense attorney can help defend him over allegations he steered a charter school he founded to some land owned by a political donor/real estate developer too.

It will be a pleasure to see Smith frog-marched out of Albany in handcuffs and tossed in jail.

Maybe he can share a cell with Bernie Kerik.

Given the number of investigations currently being conducted on Smith, it seems like it will only be a matter of time before the frog-march is a done-deal.

Duncan Part Of Corruption Probe In Chicago

Not a surprise:

When U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan ran Chicago Public Schools, his office quietly kept a log of elected officials and others seeking to help kids win admission to the most coveted schools in the system, a former top Duncan aide said Monday.

That list has now come under the scrutiny of both federal officials and the schools inspector general as part of a probe of whether clout played a role in admissions to Chicago's elite schools, sources said.

Calls listed on the annual "logs'' included anyone who contacted the schools CEO's office seeking help in placing a student, such as a parent concerned about their child's safety, said David Pickens, who was a top assistant to Duncan and is now chief of staff to the president of the Board of Education.

But the logs also held the names of elected officials, "a lot of aldermen,'' businessmen, local school council members and Board of Education employees who wanted to get kids into selective enrollment or magnet schools, Pickens said.

One year's log, for example, lists a state senator, a former U.S. senator and a top official in Mayor Daley's administration, sources told the Sun-Times.

I doubt this particular revelation will do Duncan in, but if they keep digging...

Meanwhile, here in NY, I don't see why Malcolm Smith isn't in jail yet:

The phalanx of drab trailers ringed by a chain-link fence in a desolate corner of Queens looks more like a prison than a charter school.

The cramped Peninsula Preparatory Academy Charter School has no science lab, no gymnasium, no playground and no on-site kitchen. Hot meals are trucked in from 3 miles away, and the school's 300 students dodge cars just to reach the front door.

Only two years ago, the charter school founded by Senate President Malcolm Smith was housed inside a spacious public school 3 miles away in Far Rockaway.

The official reason for the relocation was "increased enrollment" - but the Daily News has learned Peninsula Preparatory Academy was moved to land owned and under development by one of Smith's top campaign donors.

Queens developer Benjamin Companies is in a partnership building homes near the school - and started using Peninsula as a selling point to hawk the seaside residences.

While the move may benefit the developer, it certainly didn't help students wedged inside the too-small trailers - with no end in sight.

Smith says the school moving to the current prison-like location had nothing to do with the land it's on being owned by a political donor/real estate developer.

Sure it doesn't.

And Duncan's office says Duncan wasn't using the log of elected officials and other important contacts as a way of keeping track of/handing out political favors.

Sure he wasn't.

Jail For Everybody!!!

Wow - read through this TPMmuckraker piece about the latest Paterson scandal involving the Queens "racino".

Then count the number of current or former pols who ought to go to jail for their criminal shenanigans in it.

I count three - Gregory Meeks, Floyd Flake and David Paterson.

Add that number to the embattled Charlie Rangel, the soon-to-be imprisoned Joe Bruno, the already-in-prison Bernie Kerik, the ought-to-be in prison Malcolm Smith and it's like New York has turned into New Jersey.

Wonder if anybody paid off Arne Duncan to help NY make the RttT finals. Maybe Arne can go to jail too!!!

Rubber Room For Corrupt Politicians: Bloomberg, Malcolm Smith Edition

It's good to be connected.

The NY Daily News reports this morning that three charter schools with connections to Mayor Bloomberg or State Senate President Malcolm Smith are receiving a nice financial hug and kiss this post-Valentine's day:

Three politically connected charter schools are expected to receive millions in city money for new buildings, an Education Department plan shows.

In the city's capital plan, two charter schools with ties to Mayor Bloomberg - Brooklyn's PAVE Academy and Harlem Promise Academy - are slated to receive a total of $72 million for new buildings, about a third of the city money available for charter construction.

Peninsula Preparatory Academy in Queens, which state Senate President Malcolm Smith helped found, will also receive funds, though an exact amount has not been settled on.

Critics say with limited resources for school construction, the city should build public schools where they're most needed - not where elected officials have pet schools.

"It pays to have friends," said Community Education Council 15 Co-President Jim Devor, criticizing the choice to spend public dollars on a new school for Red Hook, Brooklyn, which doesn't have an overcrowding problem.

"You have a neighborhood whose school facilities are underutilized. You gratuitously add a school building where none is needed."

The Promise Academy school is run by education reform "hero" Geoffrey Canada and may constitute a quid pro quo bribe between Bloomberg and Canada.

Canada loudly supported Bloomberg's efforts to maintain mayoral control of the New York City public school system last summer when the law was up for renewal.

Now he's receiving a new school building courtesy of Mayor Bloomberg and city taxpayers at the expense of school children and parents in other areas of the city that suffer from school overcrowding.

City Controller John Liu and Public Advocate Bill De Blasio need to look into just how it is that Geoffrey Canada's school, along with the other politically connected charters, got NYCDOE largesse at a time when funds for school construction are so limited.

As for Malcolm Smith, the Daily News reported last month that he steered $100,000 dollars of state aid to the charter school he helped found, Peninsula Preparatory Academy.

While steering the money toward the charter school he founded is not illegal, it does raise questions of a conflict of interest for Smith. What may be illegal are the political donations Smith received from the for-profit company, Victory Schools Inc., that runs the charter.

The owner of Victory Schools Inc., Steven Klinsky, denied there was any quid pro quo arrangement between his company and Smith and said the donations were simply to reward Smith for supporting raising the charter school cap, but the deal certainly smells bad on the face of it.

Adding to Smith's woes, the NY Times reports this morning that Smith and some of his aides are being investigated by federal prosecutors in both Manhattan and Brooklyn for money transfers between Smith and non-profits he has ties to:

Four current or former officials of a Queens nonprofit group or a related charity founded by State Senator Malcolm A. Smith and Congressman Gregory W. Meeks — a group to which Mr. Smith has directed some $56,000 in state funds — have spent some time on the Senate payroll working for Mr. Smith, and two were among his highest paid staff members, public records show.

Federal prosecutors are investigating the nonprofit group, the New Direction Local Development Corporation, and a related charity set up to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina, and they issued a subpoena at the beginning of February for records from Mr. Smith’s Senate office that show all the money he had directed to community groups over the past decade, a person with knowledge of the subpoena said last week.

But while the prosecutors who issued the subpoena, from the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan, wrote it broadly, the person said that investigators made clear that they were focused on New Direction, which was incorporated in 2000 and says in its tax filings that it was created to encourage local development in Southeast Queens.

...

It is unclear whether the investigation by Manhattan prosecutors, which is in its earliest stages, or another apparently associated inquiry by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, are related in any way to the activities of the four people who spent time over the years on Mr. Smith’s legislative payroll. No charges have been filed, and the United States attorneys’ offices in both Manhattan and Brooklyn declined to comment on Sunday.

But three of the four people who either are or were on Mr. Smith’s payroll appear to have played major roles in the nonprofit group over several years, according to its tax filings and Web site, and two hold posts that suggest they are or were close to Senator Smith or are deeply involved in his political affairs.

Connections between the lawmakers who make grants and the nonprofit groups that get them have come under growing scrutiny from prosecutors in recent years, especially in connection with the State Legislature and New York City Council, which together give out tens of millions of dollars in local awards each year.

There is no law prohibiting a state legislator from directing a grant to a charity that employs or has on its board a friend, family member or staff member of the legislator’s. But under an agreement with Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo in 2007, the recipient of any grant, often known as an earmark, must disclose such connections in a signed statement, under penalty of perjury.

Smith's mentor, Reverend Floyd Flake, is also embroiled in a quid pro quo scandal involving the awarding of a gambling contract to a company connected to him by the state. After Flake's company won the bid, Flake pulled back from his public support of Andrew Cuomo in this year's Democratic primary for governor and says he may now support David Paterson, the man who helped his company win the gambling contract.

Finally the Daily News reports that Mayor Bloomberg bought a political crony a house in Forest Hills Garden for helping Bloomberg win his third term as mayor.

The scandals involving New York City and New York State political figures - from Bloomberg to Smith to Flake to Paterson - are coming fast and furious.

It is clear these people think state and city coffers are their own and any taxpayer funds they steer toward their own non-profits or the non-profits run by their supporters or to companies run by supporters are just the spoils of office.

It is also clear that quid pro quo deals are daily occurrences at City Hall, at Tweed, and in Albany.

Maybe there needs to be a rubber room for corrupt politicians where Bloomberg, Paterson, and Smith can languish for months on end while prosecutors investigate their cases.

And maybe there needs to be a rubber room for non-profit operators and charter school management company operators like Geoffrey Canada and Steven Klinsky of Victory Schools, Inc. involved on the other end of quid pro quo dealings