Former Queens Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio was sentenced to six years in prison today for committing fraud.

Federal prosecutors say Seminerio took a million dollars in payments from companies doing business with the state and created a fake consulting firm in April 2000 to hide the payments.

The former politician must also pay $1 million in fines.

He had been accused of using his consulting firm to solicit money from a hospital, a college and a lobbying firm without doing any work for them.

Defense lawyers had pleaded that the 74-year-old Democrat be held in home detention.

The judge said Seminerio deserved jail time for abusing the public trust.

Seminerio served as an assemblyman from 1978 to June 2009, and resigned the day before he pleaded guilty.

Source: NY1

A Queens assemblyman charged with collecting $1 million from people who did business with the state is resigning, effective immediately.

Anthony Seminerio sent a short letter of resignation to the Assembly speaker Monday night. He didn’t give a reason for his resignation in the note.

Federal prosecutors accuse Seminerio of creating a bogus consulting firm to hide payments to him. Prosecutors say that between 2000 and September 2008, Seminerio got payments from people who wanted favorable treatment in Albany.

They say he sometimes threatened to make people’s lives miserable if they didn’t pay.

Seminerio, 74 and in the Assembly since 1978, has said he is innocent. He could get up to 20 years in prison if convicted on the corruption charges.

Source: AP