Former New York state Senate leader John Sampson was sentenced to five years in prison today for lying and obstructing justice to cover up his misuse of escrow money, according to Newsday.
Brooklyn U.S. District Judge Dora Irizarry sentenced the former Democratic leader from Canarsie whose 2015 conviction was one in a string of corruption cases.
Sampson, 51, had allegedly used escrow funds he held as a lawyer to help finance a political campaign, then did favours for a businessman who gave him money to help cover up the misuse of funds.
He was not convicted of those charges, but was convicted of lying to the FBI and recruiting an old friend as a mole inside the Brooklyn US Attorney’s office to keep track of an investigation of the businessman, the report said.
Sampson, who is of Guyanese heritage and has visited Guyana on several occasions, faced up to 20 years in prison and prosecutors urged a sentence of 87 months under federal sentencing guidelines, the report added. He is set to begin serving his sentence on April 21.
They said that in addition to his crimes, he improperly continued to engage in the practice of law in family court after his licence was suspended due to his conviction.
Defence lawyers, citing Sampson’s good works as a legislator from 1997 to 2015, asked for a sentence of 366 days in prison or, alternatively, 18 months with half served under house arrest.
Sampson’s case has been watched with great interest here as it has a bearing on that of US-based Guyanese businessman Ed Ahmad who is due to be sentenced for mortgage fraud conspiracy. Ahmad was one of the key witnesses against Sampson. Ahmad’s sentencing has been deferred on multiple occasions so that he could benefit by explaining to the court the extent of his assistance to the prosecution of Sampson. Ahmad is now due to be sentenced on March 16th.
