US Attorney Seeks Pensions of Convicted Pols

On Tuesday, Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that he will seek forfeiture of the public pensions of four ex-lawmakers who were convicted on corruption charges.

He is seeking the pensions of former Manhattan Councilman Miguel Martinez, former Bronx Councilman Larry Seabrook, and is also trying to determine whether former Queens Councilman and state Sen. Hiram Monserrate and former Yonkers Councilwoman Sandy Annabi are receiving any public pension benefits.

All four of these former elected officials were convicted of various public corruption-related offenses between 2009 and 2012, and have been ordered to make restitution as part of their sentences. The effort to recover their pension proceeds is intended to force them to fulfill this requirement.

In his statement, Mr. Bharara said:

 “With today’s actions, we aim to prevent corrupt elected officials from continuing to benefit from pensions paid for by the very people they betrayed in office.  As I announced this fall, we are committed to using every legal tool to take the profit out of crime, and that includes preventing public money from being used to fund the comfortable retirement of corrupt officials. This is what justice and common sense require.”

There has been a major debate in Albany over whether the state Constitution allows lawmakers convicted of public corruption offenses to be stripped of their pension benefits. The state’s 2011 ethics reforms (Chapter 399 of 2011) would strip lawmakers convicted of a felony of their pension — but it only applies to lawmakers who took office after the law took effect.

The question now is whether Mr. Bharatra will take a similar action against state-level elected who are convicted of public corruption offenses.

Read news coverage from the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Crain’s.  The editorial boards of the Daily News and the NY Post support the effort.