New York State Senator John Sampson who has been charged with embezzling funds for his campaign is now at the centre of a new investigation by the FBI of retainer fees paid to him by a Guyanese businessman.
The New York Daily News today said that Sampson is being investigated by the US Federal Bureau of Investigations for charging ‘retainers’ to businessmen whom he helped secure land. One of the businessmen named is Guyanese Lilaahar (Sammy) Bical, owner of Kristal Auto Mall, one of the biggest Cadillac dealers on the East Coast.
The report said that when constituents and others asked the Brooklyn state senator for help, he allegedly made them hire him on as their lawyer and charged fees of US$10,000. Sampson, who is of Guyanese parentage was taken to court in New York earlier this month on unrelated charges of embezzling US$440,000 in escrow funds to finance a campaign run in 2005.
According to the Daily News, the FBI is probing whether Sampson broke the law by seeking and receiving retainer fees from at least two businessmen who sought his help in dealing with the government.
In both cases, the FBI recorded the businessmen discussing their involvement with Sampson, sources say.
Three weeks ago the FBI nabbed Sampson, 47, on charges of embezzling US$440,000 in escrow funds from foreclosure sales to help fund his failed 2005 campaign for Brooklyn District Attorney.
At the time, Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch had said that her investigation of Sampson was ongoing.
The Daily News said that sources familiar with the investigation say a focus of their inquiry is the “retainer fees” Sampson demanded for work that other elected officials typically perform as part of their routine duties.
Neither Sampson nor his lawyer, Zachary Carter, responded to written questions about the retainer fees.
One of those questioned by the FBI, sources say, is Brooklyn auto dealer Bical.
The Daily News said that last year the FBI confronted Bical about Sampson’s role in helping him get past impediments to a plan to buy a city-owned plot on Flatbush Ave. near the Belt Parkway.
The report said that Bical wanted the land to expand his dealership but faced opposition from some local politicians, including then-Senator Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn). Kruger was trying to help developer Bruce Ratner build a shopping mall on the same property. Ironically, the report said that Kruger was later indicted in an unrelated case and is now in jail.
Bical apparently turned to Sampson for help on the matter. The Daily News report said that the senator requested a US$10,000 “retainer fee” up front, and Bical wrote the cheque, sources say. Soon after, Sampson arranged a meeting with the Bloomberg administration officials at City Hall, the report added.
The report said that a spokesman for the city Economic Development Corporation (EDC), which oversaw the land transaction, confirmed that Sampson “provided legal counsel to Mr. Bical at a certain point and did meet with EDC a few times.”
A city official, speaking on condition of anonymity, characterised the meetings as “an awkward situation because he’s not just a lawyer — he’s also a senator”, the Daily News reported.
The meetings took place in early 2012, and in February the city sold Bical the land he had long sought. Bical forked out US$4.2 million, US$200,000 less than the city’s own appraisers valued it at.
When the FBI interrogated Bical about this, agents played a recording of him speaking to Sampson about acquiring the city land for the bigger dealership, sources said.
On Friday Bical declined leave his office at Kristal Motors, on Kings Highway, to speak with a Daily News reporter. His attorney did not return calls.
The report said that another businessman who paid Sampson a fee is Roopnarine (Rudy) Singh, owner of MSN Air Service. This company hauls freight for airlines at JFK International Airport.
Singh tried unsuccessfully for years to get the Port Authority, which runs the airport, to lease him more space so he could expand MSN, the report said. Last year, the report said that Singh contacted Sampson, and though JFK is beyond Sampson’s Brooklyn district, the senator said he would handle the situation — for a US$10,000 “retainer fee,” sources said, according to the Daily News.
Sampson eventually arranged a meeting with then state Senator Shirley Huntley (D-Queens), whose district included JFK, according to sources.
Singh met with Sampson at Huntley’s home in Jamaica, Queens.
Sampson and Singh were unaware that Huntley taped their conversation at the request of the FBI, under a deal that she hoped would lead to leniency at her sentencing for an unrelated charge of embezzling US$88,000 from a tax-payer funded charity.
According to prosecutors, Huntley demanded US$1,000 from Singh in return for her help, even though the FBI was listening in.
Singh’s attorney, Ron Kuby, said Friday his client “retained John Sampson as an attorney to assist him in expanding his business and renting additional space from the Port Authority. Mr. Singh never engaged in any unlawful transactions nor did he pay a bribe to any official.”
The Daily News said that the FBI also last week questioned the owner of a liquor store on Fulton Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, about Sampson’s financial ties to the establishment.
The partner, Jaichand Singh, was secretly recorded by the FBI discussing the store’s finances, the sources said.
Sampson listed himself as a “shareholder” in the store, Gateway Wines & Spirits, on his 2011 financial disclosure form. However Sampson is not listed as a principal on Gateway’s state liquor licence, the report said.
Jaichand Singh did not return Daily News calls seeking a comment.
The Daily News said that after Sampson’s May 6 arrest on the embezzlement charges, prosecutors said they offered him a deal to plead guilty to one count each of embezzlement and obstruction of justice that would allow him slightly less prison time.
Sampson’s lawyer, Carter, has said he discussed settling the foreclosure charges with the U.S. attorney for months, but the two sides couldn’t come to acceptable terms.
Sampson could now be facing additional charges
