Reuters: U.S.: N.Y. senator charged with stealing funds for failed campaign

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N.Y. senator charged with stealing funds for failed campaign May 6th 2013, 17:52 1 of 3. New York State Senator and former Minority Leader John Sampson is shown in this undated handout provided by nysenate.gov May 6, 2013. Credit: Reuters/nysenate.gov/Handout By Jessica Dye NEW YORK | Mon May 6, 2013 1:52pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York state senator in Brooklyn was accused on Monday of stealing proceeds from the sale of foreclosed properties to finance his failed run for district attorney, prosecutors said, making him the latest politician from the state to face criminal charges. John Sampson, 47, a Democrat who has represented southeastern Brooklyn since 1997, was charged with nine counts including embezzlement, obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal investigators, according to an indictment unsealed Monday. Sampson, a practicing attorney for more than two decades, turned himself in Monday morning and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday afternoon in Brooklyn federal court. His attorney, Zachary Carter, could not be immediately reached for comment. Sampson is the latest New York state lawmaker to be hit with federal criminal charges. In April, U.S. attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan charged state Senator Malcolm Smith with attempting to buy a spot on New York City's mayoral ballot. Several days later, Assemblyman Eric Stevenson was charged in an alleged bribery scheme. At a press conference, Loretta Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said Sampson abused the public trust to further his own political ambitions "in one of the most extreme examples of political hubris we've yet seen." According to the indictment, Sampson served as a court-appointed referee in foreclosure proceedings in Brooklyn state court beginning in the late 1990s. In that position, he helped oversee the sale of foreclosed properties and controlled escrow accounts containing proceeds from those sales. Sampson allegedly embezzled $440,000 from escrow accounts in at least four properties in Brooklyn between 1998 and 2008, Lynch said. He used the money to help pay expenses for his unsuccessful 2005 bid to unseat incumbent Brooklyn district attorney Charles Hynes in the Democratic primary, prosecutors said. Hynes narrowly edged Sampson that year to win a fifth term. Sampson later borrowed money from an unnamed associate in the real-estate industry to help pay back some of the stolen money, prosecutors said. When that associate was charged with a mortgage-fraud scheme in 2011, Sampson tried to keep him from cooperating with authorities, and later solicited an unnamed administrative employee in the Brooklyn federal prosecutor's office to give him information about that case, prosecutors said. If convicted, Sampson faces up to 10 years on each of the two embezzlement counts, 10 years on one count of obstruction of justice, 20 years on four separate obstruction-of-justice charges and up to five years on two counts of lying to federal agents. (Reporting by Jessica Dye; Editing by Paul Thomasch, Bernard Orr) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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