A relative of two New York City politicians has pleaded guilty to charges that he embezzled $115,000 from a taxpayer-funded nonprofit group, then shared some of the ill-gotten gains with his lawmaking kin. Richard Izquierdo-Arroyo is the grandson of New York Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo and the nephew of City Council member Maria del Carmen Arroyo. [...]
A former state investment officer has admitted helping channel hundreds of millions of dollars in public pension fund money to politically connected investment firms in a “pay-to-play” scheme. David Loglisci pleaded guilty in a Manhattan court Wednesday to a securities fraud charge. Loglisci had authority to recommend how to invest the pension money. Loglisci said [...]
New York Gov. David Paterson is pressing a state spending cap on a reluctant Legislature and pushing back against his lieutenant governor’s reported plan to borrow billions over several years to escape a fiscal crisis. Paterson says Tuesday that spending is the state’s top problem and it must be curbed or capped before resorting to [...]
Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday that he had no idea that $750,000 of the $1.2 million he donated to the state Independence Party last year for poll-watching would end up at a hastily formed company whose principals hid behind a corporate veil. “I didn’t know anything about it until I read your story,” the mayor said [...]
Rep. Charles Rangel’s ongoing ethics probe is taking a serious toll – on his campaign war chest. In the last three months of 2009 alone, Rangel shelled out $574,348 on lawyers, according to his latest federal election filings. That’s 84% of his total campaign spending during the same period. Ever since Rangel ran afoul of [...]
Governor David Paterson’s financial readiness for an election challenge is reportedly even more troubled than the numbers first appeared. The Daily News says that of the $3 million Paterson has on hand in his war chest, only $620,000 is available for a potential primary. It’s reportedly not even enough to buy one-week’s worth of television [...]
As Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo readies his candidacy for governor, one industry is helping him amass a huge fund-raising advantage: real estate. New records show that even as the industry has confronted its worst crisis in decades, developers, construction executives and real estate lobbyists have given millions of dollars to Mr. Cuomo, providing one [...]
Charles Schumer says the $8 billion in federal stimulus awards for rail projects the White House is announcing Thursday include $151 million for seven projects in New York. Most of the money – $147 million – is for five improvements along the east-west Empire Corridor, including installing a second track and warning devices between Albany and Schenectady, [...]
A former Long Island legislator pleaded guilty day to lying to the IRS about nearly a quarter of a million dollars in unreported income. Roger Corbin, 63 admitted to filing false tax returns and to tax evasion. A developer who was awarded more than $15 million in contracts in Corbin’s district wrote $229,000 in checks [...]
Charles Schumer is meeting today with members of the Bannerman Castle Trust and local officials for a briefing on how to prevent the rest of the landmark on a Hudson River island from collapsing. He says he’ll ask the federal Department of the Interior to back the trust’s application for funding under the Save America’s [...]
