“Slush funds” like the one set up by the City Council nearly a decade ago should set off the alarm bells for all honest elected officials, US Attorney Preet Bharara said Monday.
“The public deserves to see where their money is going and for what purpose. Who puts the money in? Are there subcontractors? Shell companies? Be on top of that. Be wary of slush funds for council members,” Bharara told the Association of Towns of the State of New York at the Marriott Marquis in Midtown.
“We have seen a lot of that going on in New York City in the past and I am sure it is not perfect in all your towns either,” Bharara added.
At first, Bharara made light of his Presidents Day speech, joking that the audience members had planted “kryptonite” in anticipation of his arrival due to his take-no-prisoners approach to Albany corruption.
“The corruption work I do, the subpoena power I have, why get up early on a holiday, it’s Presidents Day, shave, put on the suit, come all the way to the Marriott Marquis at some risk to myself because I can only imagine that this is some form of kryptonite on the ceiling,” Bharara said to chuckles in the crowd.
“Why come to speak to a captive audience of public officials? And the answer is that I have come to really love the sound of nervous laughter,” Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor quipped.
Bharara won convictions in federal corruption cases against New York’s two most powerful legislative leaders: former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and former state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos.
Both men face stiff prison terms after corruption convictions, but remain free pending appeals.
During his 13-minute speech, Bharara also bragged about not only bringing cases against “Albany’s bad apples,” but also prosecuting “municipal miscreants.”
“They include council members from New York City and Yonkers and elsewhere — municipal workers who decided to defraud the very people they were appointed to serve, party officials that thought nothing of skewing and election and broke the law to do it, Bharara pointed out.
“Third-party contractors who saw an opportunity to steal public money without providing the service is paid for.”
Bharara prosecuted and won convictions against several members of the New York City Council for misappropriating funds from non-profits they controlled through discretionary “slush funds.”
Bharara wrapped up his discussion by offering three pieces of advice to the small-town lawmakers.
First, they should “demand good government from your representatives in Albany,” Bharara said.
Secondly, Bharara asked them to be “vigilant” in their towns, noting that there were “predators everywhere who want free money.”
And finally, he told the legislatures to “think big” when planning for the future in terms of education, transportation and infrastructure programs.
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