Prosecutors in the case of disgraced former state Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson, whose conviction was largely due to evidence provided by Guyanese businessman Edul Ahmad, who is also awaiting sentence, are asking that he be sentenced to seven or more years on his felony convictions of making a false statement and obstruction of justice.
According to a report in the Times Union, in a memo filed last Thursday, prosecutors have asked Judge Dora Irizarry to sentence Sampson to 87 months in prison — the high end of adjusted federal sentencing guidelines — when he appears in Brooklyn federal court on Thursday. Sampson has asked for a year and a day in prison or 18 months with half served as home confinement.
Among the arguments prosecutors made is that Sampson abused the trust placed in him as a state senator.
“The defendant abused his position of trust as a State Senator by improperly (a) using Senate staff member Celeste Knight to intervene on behalf of the liquor store, without disclosing his ownership interest in the liquor store to Knight, and (b) intervening with state agencies investigating Edul Ahmad’s businesses, without disclosing to these agencies that he owed Ahmad a personal debt of $188,500 that he had not disclosed on his financial disclosure forms as required,” the report quoted the memo as saying.
Sampson had been accused of failing disclose that he had an ownership stake in a Brooklyn liquor store. One of the charges for making a false statement he was found guilty of was lying to federal agents about instructing Knight to intervene with the state liquor authority on behalf of the liquor store. Sampson also was accused of soliciting money from Ahmad to replenish foreclosure escrow accounts he had embezzled from, though he was not tried on the embezzlement charges.
Prosecutors also pointed to shady behaviour Sampson engaged in that was not part of the trail. That includes a campaign mailing sent in May 2014 that misled readers to believe that Sampson had the endorsement of 1199 SEIU though it actually was backing Dell Smitherman. They also point to a report from the state Inspector General on the awarding of a license to operate VLTs at Aqueduct Racetrack that found Sampson “implausibly claimed a lack of recall in response to more than 100 of the questions posed to him.”
What’s more, prosecutors say, the letters in support of Sampson from his constituents mean little.
“It was the defendant’s job as an elected public official to serve his constituents and help improve their lives,” the memo states. “He should not receive any special credit for simply doing the job for which he was elected.”
As in other high-profile public corruption cases, the government argues that a hefty sentence is necessary to help deter future criminal conduct by elected officials.
Ahmad himself was expected to be sentenced last month but requested and was granted a deferral until June 10, 2016 for sentencing for mortgage fraud conspiracy.
The delay to June was sought so Ahmad can benefit from reports on his cooperation with the US government in the conviction of Sampson.
In his letter to the judge, Ahmad’s counsel Steven Kartagener said that Ahmad was a “critical cooperator” in the Sampson case where sentencing is set for May 18, 2016.
“By granting this adjournment, the court would be permitting (Ahmad) to get the benefit (of) his literally hundreds of hours served as a cooperator, which will undoubtedly be chronicled at length in the government’s anticipated 5K1 letter…”
The 5 K1 letter is usually filed by the US government when a defendant provides substantial assistance in the solving of other cases and the government then seeks a reduction in the sentence.
