Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

I wrote about the conviction in September. Here's an excerpt from today's report from the Times: A former consultant to the New York Democratic Senate Campaign Committee was sentenced to three years in federal prison on Friday for what prosecutors said was a conspiracy with State Senator John L. Sampson to steal $100,000 from the organization in an invoicing scheme. The former consultant, Melvin E. Lowe, 53, of Manhattan, was convicted in September of charges including conspiracy, wire fraud and filing false tax returns. He was hired as a consultant by the committee in 2009 after Democrats won control of the Senate, and Mr. Sampson became his party’s conference leader. Prosecutors said Mr. Lowe filed a fake invoice for a printing company in New Jersey to receive $100,000 from the committee in 2010, then took $75,000 for himself. They said Mr. Lowe used the money to pay for renovations to a house he owns in Georgia. “Melvin Lowe’s corrupt actions were another example of a...

On Tuesday, state Sen. John Sampson, under indictment for embezzlement, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering, won his Democratic primary, tantamount to re-election. A day later, his former associate Melvin Lowe--a former Forest City Ratner lobbyist --was found guilty of conspiracy, fraud, false tax returns, and more (in a case unrelated to FCR). Federal prosecutors made it very clear that Sampson, though not charged in this case, was part of it, having approved payment of a false invoice. Among the astounding elements of the case is that Lowe "received more than $2.1 million in consulting income from 2007 to 2012," but wound up filing only three annual returns, reporting less than $25,000 in income each year. The press release A press release yesterday from the Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Former Consultant To New York Democratic Senate Campaign Committee Found Guilty Of Tax And Fraud Charges , subtitled ...

From the New York Times, New York Political Consultant Charged in Corruption Case : An influential political consultant whose clients include the New York Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and leading real estate developers, including Forest City Ratner, was arrested on federal corruption charges on Tuesday morning. ...The charges include wire fraud, bank fraud and criminal tax violations. The complaint says, among other things, that Mr. Lowe had failed to report more than $2 million in consulting income and used a false-invoice scheme to defraud the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (DSCC), as well as those who contributed to it, of $100,000. As it happens, none of the charges involve Forest City or any other developer. But it continues a remarkable string of corruption charges regarding people with ties to Forest City. Crain's reports : The complaint refers to an unnamed political consultant "Vendor #1" that appears to be Cornerstone Management Partn...

I speculated 4/5/13 whether the political corruption charges against Queens state Senator Malcolm Smith could eventually touch Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner, given the close connection between Smith and former business partner, Darryl Greene, who works as a consultant for Forest City on minority contracting. Well, it's been a busy month. Brooklyn state Sen. John Sampson, who once held a fundraiser at FCR offices, was charged last week with embezzlement, obstruction of justice and witness tampering. Then came the revelation that Queens state Sen. Shirley Huntley, in an effort to reduce an expected sentence for her own corruption, had surreptitiously recorded meetings with seven elected officials and two political operatives, one of whom has worked for Forest City.  The information came from Huntley's lawyer, not law enforcement officials, so the release of names cannot be seen as suspicion of guilt--and many of those recorded have responded that they...