New York Senate Majority Leader Arrested for Seriously Criminal Nepotism
New York’s Senate majority leader Dean G. Skelos: awesome dad, but also an extremely corrupt politician, say authorities.
Skelos and his 32-year-old boy, Adam, were both arrested Monday on corruption charges, the New York Times reports—the result of a year-long investigation into just how far a dad might go for his good-for-nothing kid.
That list is long, and includes allegations of bribery, extortion and fraud, according to the Times:
The charges against Senator Skelos, 67, and his son, Adam B. Skelos, 32, were detailed in a six-count criminal complaint that quickly became mandatory reading material in the Capitol building. Politicians and their staff members pored over the 43-page complaint — an often titillating document that included references to burner phones, secretly taped conversations and strong-arm tactics that were on display even during the wake of a slain police officer.
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.
The men were reportedly wiretapped despite their efforts to avoid detection—Adam reportedly routinely spoke to his father via burner phones and FaceTime, mistakenly believing they were secure methods of communication. At one point, according to the Times, Adam angrily told his father, “You can’t talk normally... because it’s like [expletive] [US Attorney] Preet Bharara is listening to every [expletive] phone call. It’s just [expletive] frustrating.”
Bhrarara—who was indeed listening—and recording— charged both men with six felony counts in an unsealed criminal indictment Monday. Those charges center on a series of promises, detailed in the complaint, allegedly made by Skelos to help or hurt legislation—all contingent on his son’s employment status.
So far Skelos has indicated he has no intentions of stepping down from his state senate seat, despite the fact that he’s facing up to 30 years in prison.
[image via AP]
