4 JANUARY 12 - JANUARY 18, 2018 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP
Local pol indicted on fraud charges
BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/file photo
Assemblymember Pam Harris.
Late night fire engulfs Bay Ridge market
A Bay Ridge market
went up in flames
just past midnight
on Sunday, January 7.
According to the FDNY, a
call came in at about 12:30
a.m. at which time 12 units
responded to the blaze. It took
nearly 60 firefighters close to
two hours to battle the blaze,
which reportedly also made
its way into the apartment
building above the business.
The fire was deemed under
control at 2:10 a.m. No
injuries were reported.
The business — Gourmet
Hills Fresh Market — is part
of a four-story mixed-use
building at 8702 Fourth
Avenue.
—Meaghan McGoldrick
BY HELEN KLEIN
HKLEIN@BROOKLYNREPORTER.COM
Sometimes it’s not such a good idea
to follow in the footsteps of your
predecessor.
Assemblymember Pamela Harris, 57,
who represents a swath of southwest
Brooklyn from Bay Ridge to Coney Island,
may just have found that out the
hard way, having been indicted on 11
counts in federal court on the morning
of Tuesday, January 9.
Harris, who allegedly defrauded
various government entities of tens
of thousands of dollars, has been
charged with two counts of wire fraud,
one count of conspiracy to commit
wire fraud, four counts of making
false statements, two counts of bankruptcy
fraud, one count of witness
tampering and one count of conspiracy
to obstruct justice in relation to a
variety of alleged schemes that arose
in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.
Harris has represented the 46th
Assembly District since winning a
special election in 2015, replacing
former Assemblymember Alec Brook-
Krasny, who had stepped down a few
months earlier to take a job in the
private sector and was subsequently
indicted in connection with a sting
operation targeting three Brooklyn
medical clinics that investigators allege
were “pill mills” which illegally
prescribed opioid painkillers while
also fraudulently billing Medicare
and Medicaid for millions of dollars
worth of unnecessary medical tests,
physical therapy and psychiatric
services.
Harris’s indictment, according to
Richard Donoghue, the United States
Attorney for the Eastern District of New
York, is related to actions that began in
2012, before she held elective office.
“As alleged in the indictment, the
defendant defrauded government
agencies out of tens of thousands of
dollars in public funds and tried to
fraudulently obtain even more,” said
Donoghue.
“She conducted her schemes victimizing
the federal and New York City
governments, and then obstructed a
federal investigation into her crimes
while a sitting New York State assemblywoman,”
and subsequently “pressured
witnesses to lie to the FBI and
cover her various fraud schemes up,”
Donoghue alleged.
Among the agencies allegedly defrauded
are the New York City Council,
the New York City Department of
Youth and Community Development
(DYCD), the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA), the United
States Department of Housing and
Urban Development, the New York
City Build it Back Program, and the
United States Bankruptcy Court for
the Eastern District of New York.
According to the indictment, between
2012 and 2014, Harris bilked
FEMA of almost $25,000 “by falsely
claiming...she had been forced out of
her residence by Hurricane Sandy.”
While, according to the indictment,
Harris told FEMA that damage to her
house was so bad that she had to seek
other shelter, providing the agency
with false lease agreements and fake
rent payment receipts, she was, in actuality,
still living in her Coney Island
home., the indictment charges.
Then, in November, 2013, according
to the indictment, Harris filed for
bankruptcy. While, the indictment
charges, she was then getting $1,550
monthly from FEMA, she “told the
bankruptcy trustee that she was
receiving $1,200 a month in financial
assistance from the same landlord
she told FEMA she was paying $1,550
a month in rent.”
In addition, the indictment alleges
that, between August, 2014 and July,
2015, Harris defrauded the City Council
of close to $23,000 in funding provided
to the not-for-profit group which she
led as executive director. While the
money had been allocated to help the
organization rent a studio, according to
the indictment, Harris used the money
for personal expenses, and submitted a
forged lease agreement to DYCD, which
was administering the allocation.
Then, according to the indictment,
in 2016, after she had been elected to
the Assembly, Harris provided the
Build It Back program with the identical
fake documents she had earlier
submitted, to garner more financial
assistance and “made other false
claims in order to persuade Build it
Back to pay for substantial construction
to her home.”
Finally, between March and May,
2017, Harris is alleged to have told witnesses
in a grand jury investigation
into her activity to lie to the FBI investigators
involved in the probe, which
they did, according to the indictment.
If convicted, Harris faces up to 30
years imprisonment on the charge
of making false statements to FEMA.
The wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud,
witness tampering and obstruction of
justice conspiracy charges each carry
a maximum sentence of 20 years. The
bankruptcy fraud and other false
statements charges each carry up to
five years in prison.
BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/Photos by @NYC911News
The scene of the January 7 blaze.