Former New York state Senate leader, John Sampson was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday for lying and obstructing justice to cover up his misuse of escrow money in a case where a key witness against him was US-based Guyanese businessman, Ed Ahmad.
Brooklyn U.S. District Judge Dora Irizarry sentenced the former Democratic leader from Canarsie whose 2015 conviction was one in a series 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 Ahmad 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 Ahmad who is due to be sentenced for mortgage fraud conspiracy by Justice Irizarry. 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, 2017
The New York Times (NYT) in its report on the case yesterday noted that up to mid-2015, Sampson was a powerhouse in the New York state capital of Albany, representing a large part of southern Brooklyn and serving as the Democratic leader in the Senate.
In July of that year, he was found guilty of attempting to derail an investigation into allegations that he had embezzled more than US$400,000 in state money while working as a court-appointed referee for foreclosed properties in Brooklyn.
During his trial, prosecutors in the United States attorney’s office in Brooklyn said Sampson had used the money in part to pay for his unsuccessful 2005 campaign for Brooklyn district attorney. Although the embezzlement charges were dismissed by Judge Irizarry because the statute of limitations had expired, the prosecutors charged Sampson with obstruction and lying to federal agents, according to the NYT report.
The guilty verdict revolved around Sampson’s relationship with two friends: Ahmad, a businessman from Queens, and Sam Noel, a longtime paralegal in the same federal prosecutor’s office that was pursuing Sampson. Ahmad, who agreed to cooperate with the government after he was charged with mortgage fraud, told the trial that Sampson had threatened to silence anyone who was helping the investigators. The prosecutors also played video and audio recordings at the trial of a visibly distraught Sampson taking a check register that Ahmad indicated could prove the embezzlement and putting it in his pocket.
Noel testified, the NYT said, that Sampson had asked him to use his position in the prosecutors’ office to look up information about any case being pursued against him. Noel also told the jury that Sampson had asked him to look up information about Ahmad’s case and that he had used confidential law enforcement databases to make both queries.
Addressing Judge Irizarry at the sentencing on Wednesday in Brooklyn, Sampson said he was doing what his lawyers told him not to do — speak from the heart. He apologized for his behaviour, saying, “I understand that these actions caused suffering to my family, my constituents and my man, Sam Noel.” He also told the judge that his betrayal of Noel, who was prosecuted and lost his job, “tears at my soul every single day,” adding: “Bottom line is my parents raised me better than this.”
Alexander Solomon, an assistant United States attorney, told Judge Irizarry that Sampson’s actions were “shockingly disturbing,” particularly for a man who had once served as the chairman of the State Senate’s ethics committee. “He was manipulative, vulgar, selfish and greedy,” Solomon said.
Nick Ackerman, Sampson’s lawyer, told the court that prison time would be redundant on top of the pain that Sampson had already experienced. Sampson, a seasoned lawyer and politician, had lost his position in the Senate, had been disbarred and had suffered “tremendous reputational damage,” Ackerman said. “The shame and humiliation Mr. Sampson feels will stay with him for life.”
But the NYT report said that these and other arguments — among them, that Sampson had served the public well throughout his time in office — did not inspire leniency from Judge Irizarry, who delivered a long and scathing ruling that encompassed the defendant’s many faults. The judge opened her speech by saying that Sampson’s crimes were serious because they “go to the heart or integrity of our criminal justice system.” Speaking to Sampson directly, she said: “At the root of all this is some idea you picked up along the way — that you had a right to dispense with your ethical obligations.”
