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POLITICS ON THE HUDSON

Prosecutors: Dean Skelos' $95k pension should draw big fine

Jon Campbell
jcampbell1@gannett.com
Former Republican Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, who has been found guilty on federal corruption charges.

ALBANY – Federal prosecutors want a judge to impose a hefty fine on former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos since the convicted ex-lawmaker will still get his $95,000-a-year pension.

In a court filing late Monday, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s office asked District Judge Kimba Wood to sentence Skelos to 12 ½ to 15 2/3 years in prison, arguing Skelos’ bribery and extortion convictions rank among “the most serious public corruption crimes committed in New York State in recent memory.”

The prosecution also wants Skelos to pay a major fine – well above $350,000 -- in part because he will keep his lucrative state retirement benefits despite being tossed from office following the guilty verdict.

The New York State Constitution protects lawmakers and state employees from having to forfeit their pensions, even if convicted of a corruption crime.

Efforts to remove that protection have long stalled in the state Legislature, though lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have promised to revisit the issue before the end of the state’s legislative session in June.

“Under the particular facts and circumstances of this case, imposing a fine that fully takes into account the pension income that even corrupt state legislators collect sends the necessary deterrent (and) strongest message (that) corruption does not pay,” Bharara’s office wrote in the sentencing memo.

Skelos, a Nassau County Republican, and his adult son, Adam, were convicted in December of bribery, fraud and extortion.

The pair was found guilty of scheming to use the elder Skelos’ powerful position to net his son jobs and payments from politically connected companies, including an environmental firm that secured a major contract in Nassau County.

Skelos' attorney has asked Wood to resist sentencing him to prison and instead opt for more than 4,000 hours of community service.

State taxpayers are on the hook for more than $775,000 a year in pension payments to former state lawmakers convicted of a felony, a Gannett Albany Bureau review of data from the state Comptroller’s Office showed.

An apparent agreement last year between Cuomo, the Republican-led Senate and Democrat-led Assembly would have started the process of changing the constitution to remove the pension protections if someone is convicted of a felony related to their job.

But that deal fell through: The Senate passed the amendment in March, while the Assembly passed a different amendment later in the year.

Last month, Cuomo said lawmakers should resolve their disagreement before they leave Albany for the year in June.

Bharara’s office sought a shorter prison sentence for Adam Skelos, asking for up to 12 ½ years. The prosecutors aren’t seeking a fine against Adam Skelos, agreeing with defense attorneys who said he doesn’t have the means to pay it.

The “seriousness” of the Skeloses’ crimes are “beyond question,” prosecutors argued.

“As a unanimous jury found, the defendants—for years—brazenly abused the public trust placed in Dean Skelos as one of the state’s most powerful officials, by seizing opportunities to illegally convert his public position into private gain, with Adam Skelos alternately threatening both economic and physical harm to accomplish their joint crimes,” Bharara’s office wrote.