Tag: Thomas Spota

Ten-term Republican Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto, citing his arrest on federal corruption charges last month, announced Tuesday plans to resign the office he was first elected to 20 years ago.

Whether it was the presidential election results or death of beloved icons such as Prince, David Bowie, Muhammed Ali or Leonard Cohen, few are sad to bid farewell to 2016.

Three men were arrested for allegedly scamming $5 million from investors in what the trio falsely claimed was going to be the next big social media website, Suffolk County prosecutors said.

The widening investigation into the pair of drug distribution networks took shape after patrol officers on the East End noticed “a significant upward trend” in heroin and cocaine drug busts beginning last September, the DA’s office said.

Advocates and citizens frustrated with the avalanche of corruption scandals on Long Island and statewide are rallying and organizing other grassroots efforts aimed at pressuring lawmakers into being more ethical and transparent. Local good government groups picketed this week outside the Long Island office of New York State Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan (R-Smithtown), urging him to allow passage of ethics reforms for Albany lawmakers before the legislative session ends June 16. And a New York City-based nonprofit this week announced that it’s suing LI municipalities that fail to turn over financial documents in a statewide citizen-led transparency initiative recently started in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Federal prosecutors made their case by comparing Walsh's time sheets with records from Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut, various Long Island golf courses, the Conservative Party, his cell phone, bank transactions and other documents between 2011 and 2014.

"Lieutenant Walsh seemed to be a little upset, asked why it was happening and stated, 'if you're worried about the other agency across the river, they're not doing anything,'" Kanas, who's since retired, told the jury. He added: "I took it to mean the district attorney's office."

Among the complaints lodged against Walsh were anonymous allegations that he was unprofessional and abusive, but neither those claims nor the accusation that the chairman was politicking at work resulted in disciplinary action, DeMarco testified Tuesday at Walsh's theft and fraud trial at Central Islip federal court.

Retired Suffolk County Sheriff's Office investigator Ed Walsh swindled taxpayers by going on golf outings, sitting at poker tables and attending political meetings instead of performing his duties as a lieutenant, prosecutors alleged Wednesday during opening arguments at the Suffolk County Conservative Party chairman's federal fraud trial.

Walsh is on trial for scheming to defraud taxpayers of $80,000 in no-show work at the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office and Suffolk County jail. Prosecutors allege Walsh falsely represented that he was working while he was actually gambling at Foxwood’s Casino in Connecticut, golfing, or conducting Conservative Party business on the taxpayer dime. The party big was also accused of lying to FBI agents when he allegedly claimed he worked flex time for the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office.