Local pols under fire: What's the matter with SE Queens?
Oct 28, 2012 5:59 am
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A few weeks ago, a federal judge spent 20 minutes reading aloud the staggering details of a $50 million mortgage scheme that had defrauded Wall Street banks and duped hundreds of immigrants.

Edul Ahmad, a handsome 45-year-old dressed in a dark suit, and a Guyanese immigrant himself, rocked nervously in the courtroom.

"I knew what I was doing was illegal," he said, entering a guilty plea in a near-whisper.
"Where were you when you were doing this?" asked the judge, Dora Irizarry.
"Queens, New York," replied Mr. Ahmad.

In Queens—southeast Queens, specifically—Mr. Ahmad's conviction added to a litany of troubles that has ensnared local politicians and, some say, threatened government funding for economic development.

Mr. Ahmad had made a $40,000 personal loan to Rep. Gregory Meeks, which the Democratic congressman initially failed to disclose as required by law. The loan is being probed by the House Ethics Committee, and speculation has run rampant about the potential consequences of Mr. Ahmad's plea for Mr. Meeks, the neighborhood's primary political breadwinner.

Darkening the cloud over the congressman, federal officials charged last week that Albert Baldeo, a political ally of Mr. Meeks, engineered a "straw donor" fraud scheme during a 2010 City Council run. Mr. Baldeo's lawyers accused prosecutors of "overreaching."

In September, state Sen. Shirley Huntley, D-Queens, was indicted in connection with no-work jobs at a nonprofit she funded, and investigations have reportedly been launched into nonprofits tied to state Sen. Malcolm Smith, City Councilman Ruben Wills and other Queens officials. The shadow cast by the various probes has complicated efforts to secure public money for the neighborhood, which has been pummeled by the foreclosure crisis.

"It has affected the ability to get ESDC and EDC dollars," said one local lobbyist, referring to the Empire State Development Corp. and the city's Economic Development Corp. "And it's prevented Mayor Bloomberg from doing enough direct, long-term economic development. They might build a park or a cricket field, but they're not focusing on building the next Court Street."

The competition for a multibillion-dollar "racino" at Aqueduct Racetrack, one of the area's biggest recent developments, did not escape controversy. Several local politicians were criticized in a state inspector general's report examining potential bid-rigging for a favored developer whose ownership included the powerful local Rev. Floyd Flake. The group's bid was disqualified, and the matter has been under federal investigation. (The project was ultimately undertaken by a different developer and the new Resorts World Casino has been an unqualified success.)

Development to take advantage of the area's proximity to JFK airport is also a major local priority, but that too has produced negative headlines. The New York Post wrote this summer that federal investigators had subpoenaed records from the Greater Jamaica Development Corp., the main economic engine in southeast Queens. Mr. Meeks had lobbied for $40 million in funds that went toward went toward city and state projects administered by Greater Jamaica.

That included a $2.7 million grant for the group to develop an old grocery store into a corporate office tower for tenants like JetBlue, an initiative that stalled for eight years and was harshly criticized by the Port Authority. In the meantime, JetBlue instead built its headquarters in Long Island City, Queens.

The president of Greater Jamaica, Carlisle Towery, an Alabaman who has run the organization for 41 years, has also drawn scrutiny from the Post for receiving $283,000 in annual salary and benefits, while his wife in 2010 got $77,000 for unspecified consulting work. The Post has been a thorn in the side of local politicians, many of whom believe the paper is biased against them. A Postspokeswoman did not return a request for comment.

A spokesman for the group said the controversies had been ginned up.

'Guilt by association'

"We at Greater Jamaica think it's important to cross all our t's and dot all our i's and show others how to do things right," the spokesman said, adding that its spending is publicly available for scrutiny and is thoroughly audited.

None of the controversy was apparent at Greater Jamaica's recent posh fundraiser in Hell's Kitchen, which featured a string quintet and a live Latin-jazz band.

Instead, speaker after speaker praised Mr. Meeks and the organization, which was celebrating its 45th anniversary. Daniel Greene, the board chairman, said that a neighborhood devastated by the mortgage crisis had rebounded, thanks in no small part to the group's work. For instance, he said, property values had increased from $313 million to $1 billion during a 10-year period and that there had been significant job growth.

There was also effusive praise for Mr. Meeks.

"Jamaica is privileged to have such an able and dedicated public servant as Congressman Meeks!" said Mr. Greene to a crowd of about 100, including several of the city's top lobbyists.

Many elected officials in the area insist that the headlines have not hampered economic development. Assemblyman William Scarborough, whose name has notably not come up in those reports, said it was unfair for unproven charges to be played up by tabloids.

"I've seen how easy it is to engage in innuendo and guilt by association," Mr. Scarborough said.

'It doesn't help'

For all the storm clouds, the local politicians routinely win re-election by Castro-esque margins. (One exception is Ms. Huntley, who endured a perp walk in front of her home just days before losing September's Democratic primary.)

Recently, the Guy Brewer Democratic Club, the most powerful clubhouse in the area, held a party at its headquarters in St. Albans to watch Barack Obama and Mitt Romney debate. Some 200 people showed up and enthusiastically joined state Sen. Malcolm Smith in a rendition of "Lift Every Voice and Sing." Mr. Meeks, fresh off a 16-hour flight from the nation of Georgia, where he had been monitoring elections, also received warm applause.

Standing outside the club on Linden Boulevard, former Councilman Archie Spigner, who is something of a political godfather in the neighborhood, paused to consider the recent tumult's impact on local development.

"It doesn't help; it certainly doesn't help," said Mr. Spigner, who now lobbies for the Greater Jamaica Development Corp.

Mr. Spigner, shaking his head, added that it had not always been this way.

"It must be something in the water these days," he said.

Meeks pal cops plea
By MITCHEL MADDUX and DAN MANGAN, NYPOST, Last Updated: 3:58 AM, October 11, 2012
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A Queens businessman who had been pressed by prosecutors to dish dirt on his friend, embattled Rep. Gregory Meeks, pleaded guilty yesterday to a $50 million mortgage-fraud scheme.

Edul Ahmad

Edul Ahmad — whose $40,000 “loan” to Meeks in 2007 remains the subject of a House Ethics Committee probe — faces up to 30 years in prison when he’s sentenced for the mortgage scam that enabled unqualified home buyers to get loans.

Federal sentencing guidelines, however, suggest a prison term in the range of 10 to 12 1/2 years.

Ahmad also must pay about $14 million in restitution and forfeit $500,000.

Left unsaid at Ahmad’s Brooklyn federal-court plea hearing was whether he has provided prosecutors with damaging evidence about Meeks as part of that plea — or whether he might do so now to avoid the full weight of the stiff sentence looming over his head.

“I knew what I was doing was illegal,” said Ahmad, 45, as he admitted operating the huge mortgage scheme that spanned from 1995 until 2009 and pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud in furtherance of bank fraud.

The Guyana-born Ahmad said that as part of that scam, he helped obtain mortgages for home buyers who didn’t meet credit standards required by the lending banks, falsified loan documents and enlisted “straw buyers” who helped conceal the actual buyers of the homes.

Ahmad, who counts among his politician pals state Sen. John Sampson (D-Brooklyn) and the past president of Guyana, was busted in July 2011.

Sources said that since then, the feds had been leaning on Ahmad, a naturalized US citizen, to cooperate with an ongoing federal investigation of Meeks.

The Post revealed in July that investigators are scrutinizing millions of taxpayer dollars that Meeks steered to a Queens nonprofit group, the Greater Jamaica Development Corp.

Before that, the feds were eyeing his connection to the Queens charity New Direction Local Development Corp., which Meeks helped found.

In 2010, The Post exposed the fact that the charity had collected thousands of dollars for victims of Hurricane Katrina — but that almost none of the money ever made it to the intended recipients.

Meeks also faces a pending House Ethics Committee probe over the $40,000 that Ahmad purportedly loaned him in 2007.

Meeks reported that payment on his yearly financial-disclosure form only in 2010 — after it was revealed that Ahmad had been interviewed by the FBI.

“I read reports today about the guilty verdict in the Ed Ahmad case. My thoughts and prayers are with those who were affected by these crimes, and with Ed and his family,” Meeks said in an e-mail statement. “With regard to the ethics committee, as I have said in the past, I have cooperated fully with the committee and expect to be treated fairly.”

Ahmad remains free on $2.5 million bail pending sentencing in his mortgage case.

dan.mangan@nypost.com

Monday, October 15, 2007, 4:00 AM.
Rep. Gregory Meeks spent $6,230 in political funds on a trainer to 'alleviate stress.'
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If Rep. Gregory Meeks looks like he's breaking a sweat lately, this might be why.

The Federal Election Commission recently rebuked the Queens Democrat for using close to $17,000 worth of political funds for personal use during his 2004 reelection bid, including $6,230 for a personal trainer - an expense his campaign treasurer justified as a means to "alleviate stress."

A subsequent review of Meeks' congressional payroll records revealed he hired his "fitness consultant," Joseph Davidson, to serve as a "district aide" not long after the 2004 election, paying him $71,420 between January 2005 and this past June.

"Alarm bells should be going off," said Mary Boyle, spokeswoman for the government watchdog group Common Cause. "It definitely looks bad when you see members of Congress hiring their personal trainers and putting them on the payroll." Boyle asked, "Can he look people in the eye and say that this personal trainer was the most qualified person to come and work in his district office?"

What Davidson's duties are and whether he is still on the public payroll is unclear as Meeks' office did not return calls for comment. Staffers in other congressional offices said "district aide" is a catch-all title that could apply to anyone from a driver to someone responsible for constituent services.

For two months in 2005, Davidson was paid both by Meeks' campaign committee and his government office. This double-dipping, while legal and widely practiced by elected officials, also poses a potential problem as public employees are prohibited from engaging in political work on the taxpayers' dime.

Meeks is a Democratic rising star who has been mentioned as potential replacement for Sen. Hillary Clinton should she win the White House. He was elected in 1998 after serving five years in the state Assembly and has been hailed as a leader among a group of emerging young black elected officials.

At first, the recently released Federal Election Commission audit of the 2004 campaign accused Meeks of misusing $20,650 worth of campaign funds for personal purposes, including the trainer, car leases and car maintenance.

Meeks' committee readily admitted $7,146 had been mistakenly billed to the campaign committee, Meeks for Congress, and would be reimbursed by the congressman. It also demonstrated to the commission's satisfaction that $3,692 worth of vehicle expenses were job or campaign related.

That left $16,958 in dispute, including $6,230 for Davidson, who charged Meeks a seemingly bargain rate of $45 an hour for personal training services that the campaign treasurer told the commission were necessary to help combat stress brought on by "the candidate's duties."

Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said Meeks' commission woes are unlikely to tarnish his reputation as a "rising star in Congress and a very important leader," adding: "An error in bookkeeping alone does not a scandal make."