While he awaits his appeal, disgraced ex-Assemblymember Anthony Seminerio — who was sentenced in February to six years in prison for defrauding the people of New York of his honest services while he was a member of the State Legislature – has asked that he be released from prison.
“We’re asking the court to release him on bail pending his appeal,” said Seminerio’s lawyer, Mark Baker, a criminal defense and appellate attorney focused on the criminal appeals process in New York state and federal courts.
Seminerio, 74, pleaded guilty in June of 2009 to charges that he took nearly $1 million from hospitals, a school and other entities for actions he undertook as a member of the State Assembly. He allegedly used Marc Consultants – the consulting firm he ran for nearly eight years – to collect payments for actions he took as a state legislator.
“From 1999 through September 2008, Seminerio engaged in a scheme to defraud the public . . . by using a purported consulting firm, ‘Marc Consultants,’ to solicit and receive ‘consulting’ payments . . .,” read Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald’s findings.
Buchwald found that Seminerio did not perform “any bona fide consulting services that fall outside the scope of activities an elected official could readily be expected to perform on behalf of his or her constituents.”
Additionally, Buchwald found, Seminerio used his influence to try to sway the acquisition of Caritas Hospitals, St. John’s Queens and Mary Immaculate.
In addition to the six-year jail sentence, Buchwald also ordered Seminerio to pay $1 million in forfeiture.
Citing the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Skilling versus the U.S., Baker told The Courier that honest services fraud “can only be applied to bribery and kickbacks and not concealed conflict of interest. [Because of this,] his plea is no longer a crime.”
Seminerio has been in a North Carolina prison complex, according to reports, and Baker said the ailing former politician “is coping.”
