Skelos, charged with son, says he is innocent

State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son, Adam, were arrested after turning themselves in to the FBI in Manhattan on Monday, following a months-long investigation by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, which alleges that Skelos used his influence to obtain money for his son in exchange for legislation in Albany.

Skelos, 67, and his son, 32, both Rockville Centre residents, were each charged with three counts of extortion under color of official right, two counts of soliciting bribes in connection with a federal program, and one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud. The charges carry a combined maximum sentence of 100 years.

“I am innocent of the charges leveled against me,” Skelos said in an emailed statement. “I am not saying I am just not guilty, I am saying that I am innocent. I fully expect to be exonerated by a public jury trial.”

In a prepared statement, Bharara said that “Dean Skelos unlawfully used his power and influence as Senate Majority Leader, repeatedly, to illegally enrich his son, Adam, and indirectly, himself. And, more specifically, the complaint, in multiple places, alleges that Dean Skelos’s support for certain infrastructure projects and legislation was often based not on what was good for his constituents or good for New York, but rather on what was good for his son’s bank account.”

“By now, two things should be abundantly clear,” Bharara continued. “First, public corruption is a deep-seated problem in New York State. It is a problem in both chambers; it is a problem on both sides of the aisle. And second, we are deadly serious about tackling that problem.”

According to the complaint, beginning not long after he was elected majority leader in 2010, Skelos allegedly started using his influence to arrange payments for his son. In all, Adam Skelos received more than $200,000 from a real estate developer and an environmental technology company — the Arizona-based AbTech — in exchange for his father’s help in getting legislation passed in Albany and contracts approved in Nassau County.