NEW YORK – New York State Senator Dean Skelos and his son, Adam Skelos, were arrested Monday for allegedly extorting people who were doing business in the state, according to authorities.
The younger Skelos alleged took the payments in exchange for political favors, officials said.
The two were also charged with bribery and honest services fraud schemes.
The older Skelos is accused of illegally receiving a $20,000 payment for his son. A large real estate developer made the payment in exchange for tax breaks from Dean Skelos. An environmental technology company made a $10,000 payment to get government contracts in New York state, according to officials.
The New York Times reported that Senator Skelos, a Republican from Long Island, was accused of taking official actions to benefit a small Arizona environmental company, AbTech Industries, and a large New York developer, Glenwood Management, that had financial ties to AbTech. Senator Skelos agreed to do so, according to the complaint, as long as the companies paid his son.
This corruption investigation that has cast a renewed spotlight on Albany’s intractable corruption problem, the New York Times stated.
New York Times Posted Document: Criminal Complaint Against Dean Skelos and Adam Skelos
The arrests came just months after federal bribery and kickback charges led Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, to step down from his position as speaker, the New York Times stated in its report.
“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,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. “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.
Adding, “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.”
The indictment unsealed Monday stated the following allegations:
- Since his re-election in 2010, Dean Skelos served as Majority Leader or Co-Majority Leader of the New York State Senate, a position that gives him significant power over the operation of New York State government.
- Dean Skelos used this power to pressure companies with business before New York State to make payments to his son, Adam Skelos. He depended on these companies for his income.
- Dean Skelos and Adam Skelos secured these illegal payments through implicit and explicit representations that the older Skelos would use his official position to benefit those who made the payments.
- Dean Skelos did this to ensure that the payments to Adam Skelos continued.
- Dean Skelos got more than $200,000 in payments to his son by applying pressure to a senior executive of a major real estate developer, referred to as “Developer-1.”
- In response to this pressure, Cooperating Witness 1 arranged for Developer-1 to pay $20,000 to Adam Skelos and arranged for an environmental technology company in which Developer 1’s founding family and Witness 1 owned stakes to make $10,000 monthly payments to Adam Skelos.
- The Witness 1 arranged for these payments to Adam Skelos due to Developer-1’s substantial dependence on Dean Skelos for real estate tax breaks and other real estate legislation favorable to Developer-1.
- Dean Skelos would allegedly punish those in the real estate industry who defied him.
- In exchange for payments to Adam Skelos, Dean Skelos took numerous official actions to benefit both Developer-1 and the Environmental Technology Company, including promoting State legislation beneficial to the companies.
Dean Skelos, 67, and Adam Skelos, 32, both of Rockville Centre, New York, are charged with the following crimes: 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.