Dean Skelos, son surrender to federal authorities

Senate leader denies corruption charges surrounding payments to his son

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State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son, Adam, were arrested after turning themselves in to the FBI in Manhattan on May 4, following a months-long investigation by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, which alleges that Skelos used his influence to obtain money for his son in exchange for legislation in Albany.

Skelos, 67, and his son, 32, both Rockville Centre residents, were each charged with three counts of extortion under color of official right, two counts of soliciting bribes in connection with a federal program and one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud. The charges carry a combined maximum sentence of 100 years.

“I am innocent of the charges leveled against me,” Skelos said in an emailed statement. “I am not saying I am just not guilty, I am saying that I am innocent.  I fully expect to be exonerated by a public jury trial.”

“As the complaint charges, in six counts, Dean Skelos unlawfully used his power and influence as Senate Majority Leader, repeatedly, to illegally enrich his son, Adam, and indirectly, himself,” Bharara said in a release. “And, more specifically, the complaint, in multiple places, alleges that Dean Skelos’s support for certain infrastructure projects and legislation was often based not  on what was good for his constituents or good for New York, but rather on what was good for his son’s bank account. By now, two things should be abundantly clear. First, public corruption is a deep-seated problem in New York State. It is a problem in both chambers; it is a problem on both sides of the aisle. And second, we are deadly serious about tackling that problem.”

According to the complaint, beginning not long after he was elected majority leader in 2010, Skelos allegedly started using his influence to arrange payments for his son. In all, Adam Skelos received more than $200,000 from a real estate developer and an environmental technology company — the Arizona-based AbTech — in exchange for his father’s help in getting legislation passed in Albany and contracts approved in Nassau County.

On numerous occasions, Bharara alleges, Skelos met with an executive from the real estate company and requested that it provide sales commissions to his son. In one instance, the company allegedly paid Adam Skelos $20,000 for work he did not do.

The same executive allegedly persuaded the chief executive officer of AbTech, to which both the executive and the real estate developer’s founding family had strong ties, to hire Adam Skelos and pay him $4,000 per month. The executive complied because, he claimed, he felt threatened by Skelos.

“Among other things, [the executive] knew from his conversations with Dean Skelos that Dean Skelos, using explicit language, stated that he would punish members of the real estate industry who Dean Skelos felt had not adequately supported him,” the complaint reads.

Skelos and his son allegedly helped AbTech secure a $12 million contract with Nassau County to clean up storm water. The Skeloses also allegedly threatened AbTech, saying they would work to quash the deal with the county unless AbTech started paying Adam Skelos more. In response, AbTech began paying Adam Skelos $10,000 per month.

The complaint also alleges that, after getting the contract passed, Skelos pressured county officials to get payments out more quickly. In a legally wiretapped phone call with an AbTech executive who became a federal witness, Adam Skelos threatened to use his father’s influence to negatively impact Nassau County if the funds for the contract were not released.

“Nassau County, man,” the younger Skelos said, according to a transcript of the call. “Burning bridges left and right. I tell you this, the state is not going to do a f---ing thing for the county. Any favor that [Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano] calls and asks for, it’s not happening.”

According to the complaint, Dean Skelos used his influence to try to get laws passed that would help AbTech and, by extension, his son. He allegedly tried to promote hydrofracturing wastewater treatment laws that would force the use of a product AbTech sold, and tried to direct a portion of the $5.4 billion in settlement money in the current state budget to wastewater projects that could then be awarded to AbTech. Additionally, Skelos allegedly tried to get the state to pass “design-build” legislation that the county said was necessary to fully implement the AbTech contract.

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