Federal grand jury probes NY Senate's Skelos, son: New York Times

[April 16, 2015]  NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal grand jury is considering evidence in a possible case against New York Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

The secret proceeding focuses on the business dealings of Adam Skelos, 32, including his hiring by an Arizona company that won a local government contract in New York although it was not the low bidder, and a $20,000 signing bonus from a title insurance company that never employed him, the Times said, citing unnamed sources.

Investigators are trying to determine whether the elder Skelos, 67, used his political influence to help the Arizona company, AbTech Industries, which won a $12 million storm-water treatment contract from Nassau County on Long Island, the Republican senator's home district.

Neither Skelos nor his son could immediately be reached for a response. The New York Times said neither responded to written questions, but it quoted the son as saying to a reporter outside his home that he was surprised to learn he was the focus of a federal inquiry. "I had no idea that this was even an issue," he was quoted as saying.
 

The paper also said neither man was accused of wrongdoing.

News of the grand jury investigation comes as Albany is still reeling from the January arrest of then-New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, on federal corruption charges. Silver lost a bid last week to dismiss those charges.

Both cases stem from a 2013 anti-corruption panel known as the Moreland Commission that was created and abruptly dismantled by Governor Andrew Cuomo, a sudden change that triggered an investigation by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. The Times report on Wednesday said the Democratic governor disbanded the panel as part of a budget deal involving Skelos and Silver.

The governor, whose office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has previously said the Moreland Commission was temporary in nature and not meant to work in perpetuity.

Bharara has castigated Albany for housing "one of the most corrupt governments in the nation" and said the concentration of power among the "three men in the room" - as Cuomo, Silver and Skelos were widely known - may be part of the problem.

In addition to the Skelos family's relationship with AbTech, the Times said, federal investigators are zeroing in on the signing bonus that American Land Services paid to the younger Skelos, although he never went to work for the company.

Neither American Land Services nor AbTech Industries immediately responded to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

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