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Mostly Cloudy Accusations mount against Skelos and son
Gov’t says duo sought seat on zoning appeals board for Adam Skelos’s wife
In documents filed in federal court on Oct. 23, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara claims that former State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son, Adam, tried to extort business from a diner owner and secure a position for Adam Skelos’s wife on the Town of Hempstead Board of Zoning Appeals
In May, Bharara charged Skelos, 67, and his son, 32, with corruption, alleging that the two used the elder Skelos’s position as majority leader to extort money for Adam in exchange for favors from his father. The charges against them carry a combined maximum sentence of 100 years. Their trial is set to begin next month. The senator and his son have pled not guilty to all charges.
The new allegations brought by Bharara do not add charges, but detail more examples of how Skelos and his son allegedly peddled influence and intimidated people.
The documents describe a recorded phone call between Adam Skelos and Demetrios Raptis, who represents an association of Greek diner owners, that took place last Christmas. According to the documents, Adam was angry that Raptis had yet to call him to set up a meeting to purchase energy services as part of Adam’s commissioned sales work. Over the course of the call, Adam apparently decided to rescind his offer.
“You had an opportunity to work with someone who could get a lot of things done for you, but now it’s done,” he said, according to a transcript of the call released by Bharara’s office.
When Raptis asked what could have been done, Skelos did not go into details. “It’s done,” he said. “I’m not going to go there. I’m not going to say this on the phone. You could have heard those opportunities in person, but you wanted to not do that. For some reason, you thought you were more important and more powerful because you have a few members that, that have diners. OK. Who gives a s‑‑‑ about diners?”
According to Bharara, the Skeloses wanted Adam’s wife, Ann Marie, appointed to the town zoning board so that Adam could receive additional income and health benefits and his wife could influence real estate deals.
Bharara’s office said that taped phone calls reveal Dean and Adam Skelos discussing the benefits of Ann Marie’s being appointed to the board. Transcripts of those conversations were not released. Ann Marie Skelos was not appointed to the Board of Zoning Appeals.
