Dean Skelos, the former state Senate majority leader who once represented District 9 on Long Island, and his son, Adam, are about to begin their time in federal prison.
The duo were convicted on corruption charges in 2015, but saw those cases overturned following a Supreme Court case narrowing the legal definition of public corruption. A retrial in 2018, however, led to them being convicted again and sentenced to four years and three months in federal prison.
“Once you became the Senate majority leader, you began to ignore in part what I have called your moral compass,” Kimba M. Wood, a federal judge, said at the time of Skelos’s sentencing, according to The New York Times. “What makes your crimes particularly serious is you corrupted major governmental processes.”
Skelos, once one of the most powerful men in Albany, was accused of using his position to secure jobs and fees amounting to $300,000 for his son from Physicians’ Reciprocal Insurers in Roslyn, New Hyde Park real estate developer Glenwood Management and Arizona-based AbTech Industries.
The Associated Press reported that Dean Skelos, a 70-year-old Republican from Rockville Centre, will likely report to a medium-security federal prison in Otisville, New York. Adam Skelos is expected to go to a low-security prison in Danbury, Connecticut.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Adam and Dean Skelos are both “currently in transit.”
Former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a New York City Democrat, was also sentenced on corruption charges in 2015. His conviction was overturned because of the same Supreme Court decision, but he was found guilty in 2018 after a re-trial and ordered to serve a seven-year sentence.
Silver is free as he is appealing his conviction and sentence, according to court records.
