Brian A. Benjamin, the lieutenant governor of the state of New York, has been indicted on federal bribery charges.
The indictment, the result of an investigation by the F.B.I. and the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, accused Mr. Benjamin of conspiring to direct state funds to a Harlem real estate investor in exchange for orchestrating thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to Mr. Benjamin’s unsuccessful 2021 campaign for New York City comptroller, the people said. The investor was arrested on federal charges in November.
…
In a grand jury indictment last November, prosecutors said that Mr. Migdol began to steer thousands of dollars worth of fraudulent contributions to Mr. Benjamin in October 2019, just a month after the state senator filed to run for comptroller. They accused him of making straw donations in the name of individuals, including his 2-year-old grandchild, who did not consent to them, and of reimbursing others for the cost of their contributions.
At the time, the prosecutors did not comment on Mr. Migdol’s motive, or explicitly name Mr. Benjamin. But they said his scheme was designed to help the candidate tap into New York City’s generous public campaign matching funds program and secure him tens of thousands of dollars in additional campaign cash.
Edited to add: Well, that was fast. Mr. Benjamin is now the former lieutenant governor.
Despite his resignation, Mr. Benjamin is likely to remain on the Democratic primary ballot in June, along with two main challengers. Because Mr. Benjamin was designated as the Democratic Party’s nominee for lieutenant governor, his name could only be removed at this point if he were to move out of the state, die or seek another office.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 12th, 2022 at 9:03 am and is filed under Law, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.