Six New York politicians were arrested for their alleged role in a bribery scandal in which prominent Democrat State Senator Malcolm Smith paid top Republicans for permission to run on their ticket in the city's upcoming mayoral race, prosecutors said, and reported by Reuters.
Smith sought to doll out cash with the help of Republican Dan Halloran in an attempt to get onto the Republican ballot, according to federal law enforcement.
Smith and five Republicans connected to the bribery scandal were arrested on Tuesday morning, an official at the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan said.
Michael Bloomberg will finish his third term as mayor later this year.
Authorities arrested five Republicans, including City Councilman Daniel Halloran, Queens County Republican Party Vice Chairman Vincent Tabone, Bronx County Republican Party Chairman Joseph Savino, Spring Valley Mayor Noramie Jasmin and Spring Valley Deputy Mayor Joseph Desmaret, reported by Reuters.
All were arrested on Tuesday morning and are appearing in federal court in White Plains in the afternoon.
Charges include bribery, extortion, wire and mail fraud.
Federal prosecutors say Smith also agreed to use his State Senate office to help fund a project in Spring Valley, New York which he thought would help a real estate developer, who was actually an undercover FBI agent providing money for the bribes, NY1 reported.
The complaint says Smith was still involved in the scheme as recently as late March.
Authorities say Smith wanted to hold off on giving the Republican party leaders any more money until they publicly backed his campaign.
Smith allegedly told the undercover agent that before anyone got "even a nickle more, [he'd] have to stand on the Empire State Building and drop every person [he] endorsed and hold Malcolm up and say he's the best thing since sliced bread. Matter of fact, he's better than sliced bread."
"A show-me-the-money-culture-seems to pervade every level of New York government," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was quoted as saying. "The complaint describes an unappetizing smorgasboard of graft and greed involving six officials who together built a corridor of corruption stretching from Queens and the Bronx to Rockland Count and all the way up to Albany Itself."
Prosecutors said two arrested, Queens County Republican Vice Chairman Vincent Tabone and Bronx County Republican Party Joseph Savino received a total of $40,000 in bribes from Smith.
"At the heart of the allegation is a sitting politician from Queens, Malcolm Smith, who believed he could and should be the mayor of New York City and in his service of that ambition tried to bribe his way to a shot at Gracie Mansion," Bharara continued at a press conference Tuesday.
"He was a Democrat but believed his best shot was running as a Republican," Bharara continued, adding that Halloran - a Republican - "quarterbacked" the ploy in a bid to become Smith's Deputy Police Commissioner, as reported by DNAinfo.
The most prominent contenders to succeed Bloomberg remain City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, former Comptroller Bill Thompson, current Comptroller John Liu and former Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joseph Lhota.
"Money is what greases the wheels. Good, bad or indifferent," Halloran allegedly told one of his cronies. "That's politics. It's all about how much, and that's our politicians in New York. They're all like that. You can't do anything without the f---ing money."
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