NEW YORK – The mayor of the Village of Spring Valley was found guilty Monday of engaging in a bribery scheme in which she negotiated 50 percent stake for herself in a development company.
Noramie Jasmin also was convicted of getting $5,000 in cash in exchange for her using her office to get land and various government approvals
The 51-year-old Jasmin, who was elected mayor in 2009, was convicted after a week bench trial before U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon, officials said.
She was convicted of one count of mail fraud and one count of extortion, officials stated.
“This office is committed to ensuring the integrity of New York public officials at all levels and wherever they may be,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.
Adding, “Today, I announce the conviction of yet another corrupt elected official who failed to live up to her oath of office. Former Spring Valley Mayor Noramie Jasmin used her official position to influence a construction project on a parcel of public land, and she accepted bribes, including a secret fifty percent share of the project, to do so.”
Jasmin is set for sentencing in August and is facing up to 40 years in prison, according to officials.
According to the evidence during the trial, this what happened, officials stated:
- From September 2011 through April 2013, Jasmin accepted bribes from an undercover FBI and a cooperating witness working with the government, on multiple occasions in exchange for official acts.
- The bribe scheme centered on the development of a community center in the Village of Spring Valley whose construction costs were expected to be at least $12 million.
- In exchange for her vote in favor of a sale of land owned by Spring Valley to a company she believed was controlled by the undercover, Jasmin demanded a secret ownership stake in the company.
- Jasmin also asked for an advance on her profits from the scheme and accepted a $5,000 cash payment from the cooperating witness.
- In support of the scheme, Jasmin directed the undercover to find people to pose as bidders for the project. This was done so that the transaction would appear legitimate to the other members of the Spring Valley Board of Trustees who voted on the sale.
- Over the course of two days, Jasmin met the undercover and two other undercover FBI agents posing as straw bidders in hotel rooms. She instructed the Straw Bidders on how to make a presentation before the Spring Valley Board of Trustees such that the Straw Bidders would lose their purported bids on the land sale.
- Jasmin then presided over the presentations made by the company in which she had a secret financial stake and the fake presentations that she had helped prepare.
- The following day, Jasmin presided over a Village Board of Trustees meeting, during which she asked the Board for permission to negotiate the sale of Village land to the undercover’s company.
- The board then voted with a “strong yes” to grant her that.
- When questioned as to why the Board needed to vote to grant her that permission, Jasmin remarked that she “cannot sit behind closed doors with a developer to negotiate on behalf of the Board,” precisely what she did in the days preceding that vote.
‘Like all citizens, the residents of Spring Valley deserved an honest mayor, not one who worked behind closed doors and behind their backs to sell public land and public office for private gain,” said Bharara
