Thursday, December 11, 2008

Assemblyman Seminerio Will Go To Trial

Like the indicted Manhattan Surrogate Court Judge-Elect Nora Anderson, Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio's day of reckoning was long in coming. Authorities were trailing him for a while and he was arrested a couple months earlier on corruption charges. Only this time, there were a couple of differences from the first time this broke in the news.

From The Daily Politics:

Federal prosecutors have obtained a corruption indictment against Queens Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio, formalizing a criminal complaint lodged in September.

The indictment accuses the veteran lawmaker of using his clout in Albany in exchange for payoffs from a hospital and other organizations. The money was funneled through a Marc Consultants, a firm set up by Seminerio in 2000. The brief filing by acting U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin covers a lot of the same territory as the original criminal complaint, offering few additional details.

It does, however, say that Seminerio pocketed "approximately $1 million" in ill-gotten gains -- double the amount cited three months ago.

Last month, the Daily News reported that Seminerio was trying to negotiate a plea bargain that would spare him jail time.

I guess that plea deal didn't go to well for the Assemblyman, eh? Blagojevich is looking at up to thirty years for merely attempting to extort money in pay to play politics. I wonder what Seminerio is looking at for actually engaging in it over here in New York City?