N.Y. State Senate Leader Dean Skelos Under Investigation

Inquiry involving Mr. Skelos and his son is part of wider probe into corruption in Albany

ENLARGE
New York Senate leader Dean Skelos talks about the state budget with the media at the state Capitol on March 30 in Albany. PHOTO: MIKE GROLL/ASSOCIATED PRESS


By REBECCA DAVIS O’BRIEN And
ERICA ORDEN

Updated April 16, 2015 1:57 p.m. ET16 COMMENTS

Federal officials are investigating New York state Senate leader Dean Skelos and his son as part of a wider probe into corruption in Albany, according to people familiar with the matter.

The probe by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, includes evidence presented to a grand jury, these people said. They said it is looking into the business dealings of Adam Skelos, along with whether his father, one of the most powerful Republicans in the state, did anything to improperly aid him.

Neither Dean nor Adam Skelos has been accused of wrongdoing.

Dean Skelos said in a statement Thursday that “I have and will continue to cooperate with any inquiry.” An attempt to reach his son was unsuccessful.

The probe, along with details about the business dealings of Adam Skelos, 32 years old, was reported earlier by the New York Times.
Adam Skelos was quoted by the Times as saying he was surprised to learn he was the focus of a federal inquiry.

The Skelos investigation comes as Mr. Bharara is pursuing a corruption case against Sheldon Silver, the longtime Assembly speaker who stepped down from his leadership post after his arrest in February. The Democrat has pleaded not guilty and said he would be vindicated.

Mr. Bharara was rebuked last week by a federal judge in that case for engaging in a “media blitz” that she said bordered on misconduct.

District Judge Valerie Caproni wrote that she was “troubled by remarks by the U.S. attorney that appeared to bundle together unproven allegations regarding the defendant with broader commentary on corruption and a lack of transparency in certain aspects of New York state politics.”

The 67-year-old Mr. Skelos, a Republican who represents Nassau County on Long Island, has served in the state Senate since 1985, rising to majority leader in 2008.

Under the administration of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who took office in 2011, the elder Mr. Skelos has proved alternately both a useful foil and a bipartisan ally for the state’s Democratic chief executive.

In the governor’s first term, Mr. Skelos’s support of measures such as gun control allowed Mr. Cuomo to shepherd some of his highest-profile pieces of socially liberal legislation through Albany, and Mr. Skelos’s efforts to help the governor achieve four on-time state budgets for the first time in decades allowed Mr. Cuomo to tout his ability to work collegially across the political aisle.

But Mr. Skelos’s stance on other matters—particularly the public financing of political campaigns, which Mr. Skelos has opposed—has given Mr. Cuomo cover when such proposals fail in the Legislature, providing the governor with some insulation from criticism that he didn’t push hard enough to help them pass.

While in 2012 Mr. Skelos entered into a power-sharing arrangement to preside over the Senate in conjunction with Sen. Jeffrey D. Klein,the leader of a breakaway faction of Democrats known as the Independent Democratic Conference, Mr. Skelos has served as the sole majority leader of the chamber since the Republicans won a clear majority in the 2014 election cycle.

Outside of his leadership position in the Senate, Mr. Skelos—who is known to spend much of his downtime at his condo in Fort Myers, Fla.—has served as “of counsel” at the Uniondale, N.Y., law firm of Ruskin Moscou Faltischek P.C., where in recent years he has earned between $150,000 and $250,000 in outside income, according to state records.

Mr. Skelos has listed his work for the firm as having been in the areas of general practice, real estate, civil litigation, corporate and health care, according to state disclosure forms. But public court records show no sign that he has ever appeared as an attorney on behalf of clients in state or federal court.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/n-y-stat...ion-1429158858