Last month it was revealed that the charity of a mystical rabbi to the stars spent $77,000 on a three-week rental in the Hamptons. Now, the Times reports that the followers of Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto were allegedly strong-armed into illegally donating over $500,000 to Staten Island Congressman Michael Grimm's campaign fund. Ah, so that's how mysticism works. more ›

Hell of a day for former State Senator Carl Kruger yesterday: Appearing in court to plead guilty to federal corruption charges, the longtime Brooklyn politician repeatedly sobbed as he admitted his guilt. With his gynecologist companion at his side, Kruger, 62, broke down and cried, telling Judge Jed S. Rakoff, "I apologize if I’m a little emotional over this." Asked if he was mentally fit to plea, Kruger said, "Under the circumstances, yes, Your Honor." NY Times columnist Michael Powell filed a vivid account of the pitiful scene, which seems worthy of a Ralph Steadman portrait: more ›

State Senator Carl Kruger's 16 year career as a legislator will likely come to an ignominious end today, when the lawmaker is expected to plead guilty to charges of fraud and taking bribes. Kruger, a Democrat represented the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Brighton Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend, Bergen Beach, Mill Basin, and Midwood, could face up to 20 years in prison on fraud charges and a maximum sentence of five years for bribery conspiracy, the Times reports. And if Kruger pleads guilty to a felony, he automatically loses his job. more ›

City Councilman Larry Seabrook was thrilled yesterday after a jury remained deadlocked on fraud charges against him— those charges included accusations that he got kickbacks from a contractor he recommended to work on the new Yankee Stadium, funneled hundreds of thousands to his mistress and her relatives, and altered a receipt for a $7 bagel to $177. Seabrook, a Democrat who represents the Bronx, said, “I continue to have faith and certainly have faith in God and faith in the jury system and hoping that the jury would come to the conclusion and that’s what we’ll live with, what was said. And we’ll continue to keep the faith." more ›

One employee at the state's Department of Transportation office in Buffalo took an unusual leave of absence: He went back to his native country of Somalia to be its prime minister. Mohamed Adullahi Mohamed spoke with the NY Times about being back in his war-torn homeland, "Every morning when I was brushing my teeth I heard bullets hitting the metal over my window. It was like, pop pop pop pop. The first day I was shocked. But after that I knew the bullets would not get through, so I continued brushing." more ›

Everybody gets a bribe! You get a bribe! And you get a bribe! And you get a bribe! That, at least, seems to be the attitude over at the offices of Assemblyman William Boyland Jr., who was arrested earlier this week on a second set of corruption charges after being acquitted of the first earlier this year. See, it wasn't just Boyland taking money. According to the FBI his chief of staff, Ry-Ann Hermon, was in on the take too. And it made her hot. more ›

Assemblyman William F. Boyland Jr. was indicted for a second time yesterday, accused by federal prosecutors of soliciting $250,000 in bribes in exchange for political favors. Earlier this month Boyland Jr. was acquitted on other corruption charges, and he used court-appointed attorneys in his defense, which cost taxpayers $125 an hour. They got him off that time, and so why mess with perfection? Boyland Jr. will once again be passing along the costs of his alleged corruption to his constituents. Cut him some slack, he's broke! more ›

NY Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. was his acquittal on corruption charges earlier this month, but the party is about to end, because the feds just arrested him this morning on new corruption charges. U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch says Boyland solicited more than $250,000 in bribes and took thousands for performing official acts for bribe players. Boyland, who represents Brooklyn's 55th District, allegedly told one undercover agent, "I got a middle guy by the way ... I gotta stay clean ... I got a bag man..." more ›

State Assemblyman William Boyland was grinning and pumping his arms in the air after being acquitted of corruption charges in federal court yesterday. Boyland, who represent Brooklyn, had been indicted, along with powerful State Senator Carl Kruger, on charges of bribery and accepting money from hospital executives in exchange for state contracts. But a jury found Boyland not guilty and a juror told the Daily News that the feds “didn’t give us enough evidence to convict him and send him to jail." more ›

Bronx City Councilman Larry Seabrook was in federal court yesterday, as his corruption trial began. The first witness, who had donated tens of thousands to the Democrat, insisted the money wasn't in exchange for getting the job to make boilers for the new Yankee Stadium, "He never said give me money for the Yankee Stadium. It was never a, what do you call it? Quid pro quo." more ›

The NYPD Internal Affairs department, which is entrusted with investigating police corruption, has failed to adequately police the police, according to several law enforcement experts, prosecutors, and current and former members of Internal Affairs. A damning article in today's Times begins by pointing out that all the recent corruption allegations and indictments in the NYPD have one thing in common: none of the investigations began with Internal Affairs. more ›

Two Rikers Island guards have pled guilty to felony assault charges for running a violent "Fight Club" like enforcement system that pitted gang members against inmates and resulted in the death of one 18-year-old prisoner. 33-year-old Michael McKie is expected to receive a two year sentence in January, while 37-year-old Khalid Nelson will receive one year. Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Hearn said in a release that the two guards "fittingly…face prison sentences themselves. As inmates, they will appreciate the importance of Corrections Officers' maintaining integrity and safety in the City jails." more ›

José Ramos, the NYPD officer whose chatter with drug dealers on tapped phone lines instigated the department's massive ticket-fixing probe, said back in April that he didn't take money for his "professional courtesy." "I haven't taken a dime. I have nothing to worry about," he said. Now, a NYPD source tells the Post that Ramos actually accepted a flatscreen TV among other stolen electronics. more ›

Famed New York City journalist Jimmy Breslin, who has spent his long, storied career highlighting the plight of the common man, has visited Zuccotti Park and mingled with the Occupy Wall Street protesters. Not surprisingly, he approves. Calling the protests a "human rights movement" that's "threatening to become historic," Breslin writes in the Daily News, "Each day, the crowd grew larger and there came a moment in a city newsroom when somebody picked up his head and wondered if they couldn't begin to cover the news." more ›

Oh to have been a fly on the wall when Mayor Bloomberg heard about this! Today the FBI arrested the top official in charge of new affordable housing construction in New York City, along with six developers, on charges including federal racketeering, conspiracy and bribery. According to court papers [PDF] Wendell B. Walters, the 49-year-old assistant commissioner for new construction of the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, collected approximately $600,000 in bribes and kickbacks on about $22 million in moderately priced housing projects he oversaw in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn between 2002 and 2011. more ›

Attorneys for the 17 police officers who have been indicted in the six month-long ticket-fixing sting are asking the judge for a change of venue out of the Bronx, a move that Bronx DA Robert Johnson is vowing to stop. Sources tell the Post that the defense is also planning on leaking the Bronx grand jury's votes and "facial expressions" in hopes to proving to the judge that the entire venue is biased. Maybe if the judge's parking citations disappeared he'd be more sympathetic? more ›

A former hospital CEO was convicted of bribing state officials yesterday. Jeffrey Rosen, who oversaw hospitals in Queens and Brooklyn, "was found guilty of funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars from his medical-care empire to two assemblyman and a state senator, who prosecutors say helped him win state loans and secure other favors from Albany," according to the Wall Street Journal. more ›

The former Bronx Assistant District Attorney who is charged with DWI after an accident on the Major Deegan Expressway has dismissed her attorney and has hired a defense lawyer who successfully argued in favor of a different Bronx ADA's DWI. Another possible reason why Jennifer Troiano ditched lawyer Howard Weiswasser: He's her best friend's dad, and since her best friend is another ADA who is supposed to testify...which means he would have had to cross-examine his own daughter. more ›

With its namesake on vacation, the O'Reilly Factor has some big, shouty shoes to fill. Who better than Laura Ingraham? And for maximum ratings, Bill's bookers found a nice, corrupt, Congressional barrelfish for yesterday's show. Note to Charlie Rangel: FOX is not the same as a subpoena, you don't actually have to appear on it. more ›

Scores of NYPD officers are currently under investigation for possible charges of perjury. Sources tell DNAinfo that the instances of perjury "run the gamut" from falsified drug busts to even a murder case. The investigation, which is completely separate from the ongoing ticket-fixing investigation, is being conducted by Internal Affairs as well prosecutors from every borough. "There are narcotics officers who swore to something that did not happen," the source says, and "there are cases where things are done that may not be intentional…but the district attorneys are very concerned and want to make sure it is not something venal." more ›

Former NYPD officer Franklin Mata was sentenced today to 60 days in jail and three years probation for official misconduct stemming from the rape charges that he and former partner Kenneth Moreno were acquitted of in May. Judge Gregory Carro, who sentenced Moreno to 1 year in jail on Monday after an angry remonstration, told Mata today, "For some reason you continued to carry your partner's bags throughout the trial. Your testimony clearly…it wasn't wholly truthful." The Post reports that Mata gave a "tearful plea" before the sentence: "I never meant for anyone to get hurt that night…I loved my job and worked hard to get where I was, and now it's all gone." more ›

Last year, the Daily News reported that Congressman Gregory Meeks, who represents the 6th District in Queens, took a $40,000 loan from a local businessman without any paperwork—and allegedly without any interest or a repayment schedule—in 2007. While he paid it back, Meeks admitted that it was an "oversight" that he didn't list it on his disclosure forms. Well, now a Congressional investigative report suggests that he probably did violate federal law. more ›

The last time we checked in on Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz's wife, Jamie Snow, she was reportedly hogging an armful of souvenir placemats from the Brooklyn Museum’s gala dinner for the Takashi Murakami retrospective. ("You guys really should have acted faster. This is Brooklyn!" she allegedly told attendees who asked her to spare a placemat.) This time Snow is back in the SWAG spotlight for taking advantage of free travel offers from foreign governments who paid her expenses when she traveled with Marty to Turkey and the Netherlands. more ›

Before his sextacular political implosion, former Rep. Anthony Weiner was hard at work on a plan to make diplomats pay for their $18 million worth of parking infractions. Weiner may have turned out to be a hypocrite—he himself owed $2,180 in unpaid Washington DC parking tickets—in more ways than one, but his fight against diplomats' ticket exceptions was left hanging in the wind. But Forbes has taken to statistics and maps to better expose the sordid underbelly of what Andrea Peyser once referred to as those "malodorous, greedy, drunk and demented" foreign nationals. more ›

State Senator Carl Kruger has kept a relatively low profile since surrendering to federal authorities on corruption charges. Okay, he did change his long opposition to gay marriage by supporting the marriage equality bill, but the Post reports he's got bigger stuff on his mind—like resigning this summer and taking a plea deal with the feds. Why? A source claims, "The importance of his decision is so that he can negotiate better for his boyfriend." more ›

A NYPD police sergeant who performed illegal searches and perjured himself in his attempts to secure convictions, pled guilty to all charges and will now serve weekends in jail for three months. The maximum penalty for his crimes was 12 years, but the prosecution made no recommendation for his sentence. In the most galling of the charges against William Eiseman, the 12-year-veteran used pictures of drugs on a suspects cell phone to illegally search the man's apartment, then later lied and said the man told him where the drugs were. Eiseman's lawyer requested leniency, telling the judge "He never once arrested an individual who was guilty of no crime. He was trying to get guns and drugs off the street." Where have we heard this before? more ›

As many as 40 NYPD officers, including prominent officials at the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, could be indicted in the ticket-fixing probe as early as this week by a Bronx grand jury. "The ones you'll see indicted are ones who went further than just taking care of a ticket for a friend," a source tells the Daily News, "It goes beyond courtesy." This includes PBA officials like Joe Anthony, who was caught on tape taking care of summonses, as well as Officer Salvador Duran, whose credibility in a murder trial was successfully challenged after revelations of his ticket fixing. The suspect walked. more ›

Good news! The ringleader of the "epic," hilarious-if-it-wasn't-true "unprecedented fraud" that is the CityTime boondoggle has been made to forfeit $2.5 million in salary that he was paid as the lead contractor for Science Applications International Corp. Perhaps he was the one determining how much he should forfeit because, um, didn't he steal $5 million? Oh well, we'll take what we can get from a "pretty good job" like this one. Only $457.5 million left to recoup! more ›

Former parking enforcement officer Daniel Chu, known as Big Bad Dan to residents in Queens where he terrorized funeral processions and pregnant women alike, is suing Queens city councilman Dan Halloran for $6 million, alleging that the pol insulted his Chinese heritage and damaged his reputation. Chu alleges in the complaint that Halloran said, "Go ahead and give me a f*cking ticket. I know the police commissioner and your boss…When you lose this job you can go back to your old job, delivering Chinese food." A spokesman for Halloran denies the charges and tells the Daily News, "Chu is a disgruntled and disgraced traffic agent and his conduct speaks for itself." more ›