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The New York Times
N.Y. / Region
Democratic
Assemblyman Pleads Guilty
to Soliciting
Payments
By COLIN MOYNIHAN,
nytimes.com on the Web, June 25, 2009
Saying that he knew his “conduct was
illegal and wrong,” a longtime Democratic member of the New York State Assembly,
Anthony Seminerio, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to abusing his position by
soliciting for himself an amount prosecutors estimated at $500,000.
Mr. Seminerio, 74, represented the 38th District in southwestern Queens for more
than 30 years before resigning this week. Federal prosecutors said that
for the last decade he traded upon his office, receiving “corrupt payments” from
people or organizations that had business before the state and sometimes
threatening those who resisted his requests for money.
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John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times
Anthony
Seminerio, center, leaving court after pleading guilty on Wednesday,
faces a penalty of up to 20 years in prison |
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The payments were funneled into a
company called Marc Consultants that Mr. Seminerio created to hide the income,
prosecutors said.
Mr. Seminerio told Judge Naomi Reice
Buchwald in Federal District Court in Manhattan that one of the organizations
that paid him for wielding his political influence was Jamaica Hospital Medical
Center, in Queens. It was the first public mention of Jamaica Hospital,
which before the hearing had been referred to in court papers merely as “a
hospital in New York City.”
Appearing before the judge around noon on Wednesday, Mr. Seminerio, unshaven but
wearing a blazer and a tie, declared in a firm voice that he was guilty of the
charge of honest services fraud. In a brief statement he acknowledged that
on July 10, 2008, he “promoted the interests” of Jamaica Hospital in connection
with state business and did not divulge that he had received payments from the
hospital.
“My conduct had the effect of depriving others of honest services,” he said.
Prosecutors stated that the hospital had paid Marc Consultants about $310,000
and that “a separate, Medicaid-managed health care plan” affiliated with the
hospital paid another $80,000. At the request of hospital officers,
prosecutors said, Mr. Seminerio acted as an advocate with legislators and
lobbied on their behalf with executive branch officials.
A criminal complaint states that on numerous occasions Mr. Seminerio “took
action in his capacity as a member of the Assembly to benefit the hospital at
the same time that he was receiving payments from the hospital.”
The complaint also details recorded conversations in which hospital officials
asked Mr. Seminerio to intervene in state budget decisions and in which Mr.
Seminerio urged a Health Department official to help Jamaica Hospital take over
another hospital.
After the hearing a spokesman for the hospital said, “Jamaica Hospital Medical
Center has and continues to cooperate with the authorities, voluntarily
providing the government with information it requests.”
In the course of the investigation, federal agents intercepted Mr. Seminerio’s
communications and used a cooperating witness to record conversations with him.
They also recorded his conversations with an undercover F.B.I. agent who paid
$25,000 to Mr. Seminerio while posing as a developer, prosecutors said. In
exchange, Mr. Seminerio was said to have agreed to help secure tax credits for
redevelopment projects in environmentally contaminated areas and to propose
legislation with provisions suggested by the agent.
During one recorded conversation with the agent, Mr. Seminerio spoke
contemptuously of people who benefited financially from what he termed “favors”
offered without charge. “From now on, you know, I’m a consultant,” he
said.
A superseding indictment stated that on one occasion Mr. Seminerio threatened to
sabotage relationships between the executive of a nonprofit organization and
legislators in Albany when Mr. Seminerio’s services were declined.
The guilty plea by Mr. Seminerio carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison
and fines that could exceed $250,000. In a letter to Mr. Seminerio’s
lawyers, federal prosecutors wrote that they believed that an appropriate
penalty would be a prison term of 135 to 168 months, along with a fine of up to
$175,000.
Mr. Seminerio is scheduled to return to court on Oct. 20 for a hearing regarding
sentencing. William Harrington, an assistant United States attorney, told the
judge the government expected to present evidence of other criminal actions.
After pleading guilty Mr. Seminerio joined his lawyers in the courthouse
cafeteria, where he sat at a round table and drank from a tall paper cup.
Later, he emerged onto Worth Street, where he spoke briefly to about a dozen
journalists who followed him to a subterranean parking garage.
“I want to apologize to my colleagues and my constituents,” he said. “And
to my wife and family.”
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