State Senator Malcolm Smith, a former Senate Majority Leader, yesterday lost a Democratic primary for his seat in Queens. He is scheduled to face a retrial in January for attempting to bribe Republican Party officials to allow him to run for New York City mayor as a Republican in 2013.
Smith, and his finances, first came under scrutiny by federal prosecutors after NLPC exposed his involvement with a charity called New Direction Local Development Corporation. Along with U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Smith used New Direction as a political slush fund. Among other financial irregularities, the nonprofit raised money for Hurricane Katrina victims who never received the money.
Smith was defeated by former New York City councilman Leroy Comrie by a wide margin. Comrie also has links to Meeks and other prominent members of the Queens political machine, which is corrupt from top to bottom. As a councilman, Comrie requested “member items,” the New York City equivalent of earmarks, for a nonprofit called AngelDocs.
AngelDocs operated a fake health clinic called the Aki Life Health Center in Queens. Based on information provided on an exclusive basis by NLPC, the New York Post published a major exposé of the Center in April 2012. Its founder, the Nigerian-born Dorothy Ogundu, was convicted in December 2013 of defrauding 12 separate government programs for a total of $370,000. Meeks arranged for an earmark of $380,500 in federal funds.
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