Allege Influence-Peddling Got Seminerio $500G; Ex-CO May Return to Jail
By RICHARD STEIER
Anthony Seminerio, who began his career as a Correction Officer and parlayed his experience in Albany on union business into a 30-year career as an Assemblyman, has been accused by Federal prosecutors of receiving more than $500,000 in corrupt payments from individuals doing business with the state.

ANTHONY S. SEMINERIO: Charge he sold his office.

According to the Daily News, the case against Mr. Seminerio was built with the cooperation of his former Queens Assembly colleague, disgraced labor leader Brian M. McLaughlin. The News Sept. 11 reported that Mr. McLaughlin was the unnamed cooperating witness cited by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan as having introduced Mr. Seminerio to an undercover FBI agent who offered him payoffs to help advance the business interests of his "clients" in Albany.

A Sitdown Broker

Mr. Seminerio is also accused of accepting $25,000 from the undercover operative in exchange for brokering meetings with top legislators in both the Assembly and the Senate who were in a position to help those clients. (There is no evidence that any of the unidentified legislators did anything improper, and at one point Mr. Seminerio allegedly told the FBI agent not to mention the payments he was receiving to one of those officials.)

BRIAN McLAUGHLIN: Did he help make case?

U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia said the Assemblyman had used Marc Consultants, a firm that shared his home address, as a conduit for the improper payments, $310,000 of which allegedly came from an unidentified hospital and another $80,000 from a Medicaid-managed health-care plan that was affiliated with the hospital.

As this newspaper went to press Sept. 15, a formal indictment had not yet been presented against Mr. Seminerio. He was released on $500,000 bond five days earlier without entering a plea to the charges against him.

Ex-COBA Board Member

The former member of the executive board of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association has long had a reputation as one of the Assembly's most-outspoken members, as well as one of the most conservative Democrats in the body. He has endorsed numerous Republicans for state and city offices, including ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Gov. George E. Pataki.

If convicted of the charge of honest services mail fraud, Mr. Seminerio, who is 73, would face up to 20 years in prison.

An affidavit submitted by FBI Special Agent Julie S. Brown states that the Assemblyman's improprieties began in April 2000 and continued through this month. The vehicle for the payoffs was the consulting firm, but she noted that "Seminerio did little or no consulting work" and used the firm primarily "to conceal his stream of corrupt payments from public scrutiny."

Paid His Credit-Card Bills

Special Agent Brown stated that she discovered that Marc Consultants had disbursed more than $232,000 in checks payable to Mr. Seminerio and another $60,000 in checks payable to "cash" which he signed. He also allegedly had the consulting firm pay $112,955 in American Express card bills he had run up, with other checks written to his friends and family members.

The cooperating witness whom the News reported to be Mr. McLaughlin — the former head of the AFL-CIO New York City Central Labor Council — met with Mr. Seminerio on Sept. 21, 2007, a month before the indictment was issued that produced a guilty plea by Mr. McLaughlin earlier this year. (Mr. McLaughlin was supposed to be sentenced two days after Mr. Seminerio's court appearance, but that hearing was adjourned.)

During that meeting, Mr. Seminerio allegedly said that he had decided that, instead of helping acquaintances in the hospital and health-care industries as "favors," he had decided to charge them for his services. Rather than have them be the only ones to profit from use of his influence, he allegedly stated, he had decided, "Screw you, from now on, you know, I'm a consultant."

Probation Privatization Plan

Two months later, after Mr. McLaughlin was already under indictment, he approached Mr. Seminerio about introducing a prospective client who was interested in privatizing components of the probation system to state officials. Mr. Seminerio, according to Special Agent Brown, offered to introduce the client to the state Probation Commissioner.

Beginning six months ago, Mr. Seminerio arranged a series of meetings between the undercover agent and legislators who held leadership posts involving business matters relevant to the undercover's "clients." In addition to the privatization of probation services, the undercover said that he represented someone with an interest in "brownfields" legislation. In one instance, when the undercover sought to give him a $5,000 check, Mr. Seminerio allegedly advised him to present it in an Albany restaurant because it was "against protocol" to hand it over in the State Legislative Office Building.

A Call for 'My Check'

Special Agent Brown also reported that on April 22 of this year, during a phone call between Mr. Seminerio and an unidentified hospital official that was taped, the Assemblyman stated that he was calling for "my check," and a couple of weeks later deposited a $10,000 check from the hospital into the account of his consulting firm.

During that conversation, Mr. Seminerio allegedly told the hospital executive that he had easy access to a top Assembly leader, adding, "That kind of relationship you can't buy for a million dollars."