State Sen. John Sampson was convicted Friday of obstructing justice and lying to FBI agents by a federal jury in Brooklyn, the latest in a long line of rogue New York politicians brought down by greed and lies.
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Sampson faces up to 10 years in prison.
Constituents in his district will have to vote for his replacement in a special election.
“Today’s jury verdict reaffirms the fundamental principle that no one is above the law”, said Kelly Currie, the acting U.S. attorney in New York’s Eastern District. “Criminal self-interest was his undoing”.
According to the report, Sampson, who has a Guyanese parent, appeared to breathe a premature sigh of relief after he was cleared of the first charge against him as he put his head down on the table.
But his mood plunged after he went down on the second rap that carries a maximum 10-year term.
The case against Sampson is that he skimmed money off of foreclosure deals while serving as a court-appointed monitor. Sampson later took a $188,500 loan from Ed Ahmad, a real estate developer and Sampson associate, to replenish these accounts.
After Ahmad was indicted in 2011 as part of a mortgage-fraud scheme, Sampson attempted to prevent him from cooperating with authorities and sought information about that case from a paralegal in the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s office, Sam Noel.
Jurors watched video of Sampson visibly recoiling at the damning document and later tucking it into his jacket before leaving the meeting. “As this case proves, we, along with our partners, will continue to root out obstruction of justice in all forms and at all levels of government”.
The jury forewoman, Kim O’Meally, said they didn’t have much use for the government’s star witness Ahmad.
Sampson was convicted of one count of obstruction of justice and two counts of making false statements stemming from an investigation into corruption in his office, as stated by an Albany Times-Union report. “Everything was based on evidence”.
Prosecutors argued that Sampson, a lawyer and one-time chairman of the state Senate’s Ethics Committee, embezzled funds he held in escrow while presiding over sales of foreclosed properties, and then tried to hide it. Judge Dora L. Irizarry threw out the charge of embezzlement last October because the statute of limitations had run out, but the former state Senate minority leader was found guilty of obstructing the investigation of that charge.
Defense Attorney Nathaniel Akerman called the mixed verdict a partial victory, and told reporters he would pursue all his appeal options to appeal the convictions “until Mr. Sampson is vindicated”.
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“This opens up a can of worms”, Sampson said on the tape. Sampson was stoic as the verdict was read, and left in the middle of a throng of supporters without commenting.
