Updated news on the Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno, Lucchese and Colombo Organized Crime Families of New York City.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Brooklyn Senator Expected to Plead Guilty in Corruption Case


State Senator Carl Kruger was expected to plead guilty on Tuesday to federal corruption charges that he accepted at least $1 million in bribes to finance a lavish lifestyle, including a large home in Mill Basin, Brooklyn, where he lived with two gynecologist brothers and their mother, according to several people briefed on the case.
One of the brothers, Michael Turano, who was also charged in the corruption case unveiled in the spring and was, by many accounts, Mr. Kruger’s companion, was expected to plead guilty with the lawmaker, the people briefed said.
Mr. Kruger, a Democrat and an influential Democrat and 16-year legislator, was expected to plead guilty to four of the five counts in the indictment, according to two of the people. The charges include fraud conspiracy, for which he could face up to 20 years in prison, and bribery conspiracy, which carries a maximum term of five years.
The two people said Mr. Turano, also charged with all five counts, was expected to plead guilty to a single bribery conspiracy count, for which he would face a maximum of five years in prison.
Mr. Kruger’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said Mr. Kruger and Mr. Turano were scheduled to appear before the presiding judge in the case, Jed S. Rakoff of Federal District Court in Manhattan, on Tuesday afternoon; he would not discuss the details of what was expected to transpire. If he pleads guilty to a felony, Mr. Kruger will automatically lose his job.
Mr. Turano’s lawyer, Robert F. Katzberg, declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for the United States attorney, Preet Bharara, whose office is prosecuting the case.
Mr. Kruger, Mr. Turano and six other men, including Assemblyman William F. Boyland Jr., two hospital executives, a lobbyist and a developer, were arrested in the case in March. A criminal complaint detailed a smorgasbord of schemes, most of which included a single staple: the senator accepting bribes.
And the schemes were lucrative, according to the charges. Mr. Kruger collected at least $1 million in bribes, the authorities said, in return for all manner of political favors, like helping hospitals seeking to merge, getting state money for real estate developers and even expanding the business hours of liquor stores. The bribes, according to prosecutors, financed a four-door Bentley Arnage and the Mill Basin home, which was originally built for a boss of the Luchese crime family.
Mr. Kruger, through his lawyer, denied wrongdoing when he was charged. Mr. Kruger has said he is not gay.
Mr. Boyland, a Democrat, who was tried separately before Judge Rakoff last month, was acquitted of conspiring to take $175,000 in bribes in return for using his influence on behalf of a health care organization that operates hospitals in Queens and Brooklyn.
Less than three weeks later, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged him with soliciting $250,000 in bribes in a separate case that accused him of continuing to commit corruption crimes after his arrest on the first case — and of seeking bribes to pay the lawyers in that case. Mr. Boyland’s case was the second stemming from the original charges issued in March.
In September, another defendant, David P. Rosen, the former chief executive of the health care organization, MediSys, was convicted of conspiring to bribe Mr. Boyland — as well as Mr. Kruger and a third legislator, Anthony S. Seminerio, a Democratic assemblyman from Queens — in return for favorable treatment for MediSys.
Mr. Seminerio, who pleaded guilty to fraud in an earlier case, has since died.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/nyregion/brooklyn-senator-expected-to-plead-guilty-in-corruption-case.html?_r=1


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