Glenwood Management is hunkering down following new revelations company executives were embroiled in the Dean and Adam Skelos scandal.
Dean Skelos, the majority leader of the New York Senate, was arrested Monday on corruption charges for allegedly shaking down businesses to generate more than $200,000 in payments for his son.
The Long Island Republican reportedly applied “persistent and repeated pressure to a senior executive of a major real estate developer,” which resulted in commission payments and consultant work for his son Adam, who works as a title insurance salesman.
The real estate firm and the company executive were not named in the federal criminal complaint, they were simply referred to as “Developer-1” and CW-1” respectively.
However, numerous published report have cited Glenwood Management as the company in question. Glenwood has “no commentˮ on the matter.
According to the complaint, the unnamed executive is now cooperating with authorities, and his firm has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
“As the Complaint charges, in six counts, Dean Skelos unlawfully used his power and influence as Senate Majority Leader, repeatedly, to illegally enrich his son, Adam, and indirectly, himself,” said US Attorney Preet Bahara.
In exchange for the payment, and the developer’s help in getting his son a $10,000 monthly payment from an environmental technology company seeking government contracts, Skelos was said to have voted favorably for legislation that the real estate firm lobbied for, such as rent regulation and the 421a tax program.
“The Complaint, in multiple places, alleges that Dean Skelos’s support for certain infrastructure projects and legislation was often based, not on what was good for his constituents or good for New York, but rather on what was good for his son’s bank account,” Bahara said.
According to the complaint, Skelos, who has served as majority leader or co-majority leader since being re-elected in 2010, started demanding payments for his son in the same year. In exchange for the payments, he was said to have brokered the approval of a $12 million contract for the environmental technology, which the Times report identified as Arizona-based company Abtech.
The contract was said to have resulted in the doubling of Adam Skelos’ monthly payments. The complaint also outlined how the elder Skelos “made an urgent request” to the real estate developer for a $20,000 payment to his son, which was coursed through a title insurance company that Adam Skelos has never worked for.
“The charges announced today describe the alleged criminal activity of Dean and Adam Skelos. In particular, the defendants are alleged to have conspired to take advantage of Dean Skelos’s powerful position within state government to influence and extort those with business before the state. When all was said and done, Dean Skelos is charged with having caused more than $200,000 to be paid to Adam Skelos in exchange for backdoor bribes,” said FBI Assistant Director-In-Charge Diego Rodriguez.
Senator Skelos and his son surrendered to the FBI in Manhattan on Tuesday morning. The two have been charged with three counts of extortion under official light, two counts of soliciting bribes in connection with a federal program and one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud. If convicted, the two face up to 20 years for each count of conspiracy and honest services fraud. The soliticiting bribes count carry a maximum sentence of 10 years.
