It seems that Latino elected officials are suffering from a type of corruption virus that is spreading faster than any swine flu virus that we have been made aware of in the news. Though it seems that the epicenter of this corruption virus might be the Bronx, the following article from the NY Times reveals that this corruption virus is spreading….
The best way to contain and beat back this dangerous virus is to vote everyone of the affected elected officials and their co-horts out of office.
City Room Blog
Councilman Martinez Resigns
By Ray Rivera
New York Times (July 14, 2009)
Updated, 2:20 p.m. | In a terse one-sentence letter to city officials today, City Councilman Miguel Martinez submitted his letter of resignation, effective immediately. The resignation comes as federal prosecutors in Manhattan are preparing to file charges against him stemming from an investigation into a nonprofit group he funded in northern Manhattan, according to people familiar with the investigation. The charges are expected to be filed as early as this week.
“Dear Speaker Quinn,” Mr. Martinez’s letter began, addressing City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn. “Effective today, July 14, 2009, I am submitting my resignation to the New York City Council.”
The letter was also sent to the city clerk’s office, ending the Upper Manhattan Democrat’s seven-year council career amid a whirl of controversy and short-circuiting his re-election campaign.
The charges would make Mr. Martinez the first councilman implicated in a nearly two-year-long investigation by the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan and the city’s Department of Investigation into the City Council’s use of member items to finance nonprofit groups. Prosecutors filed a “notice of intent to file an information” on Monday in United States District Court in Manhattan, a procedure that, with the defendant’s agreement, would allow prosecutors to proceed with charges without a grand jury indictment.
In March, investigators raided the offices of the Upper Manhattan Council Assisting Neighbors, a group founded in 1998 to help small businesses and underserved immigrant and Latino populations in Washington Heights and Inwood.
But it received little city support until 2006, after Mr. Martinez’s sister, Maria, joined the board in an unpaid position. Since then, it has received more than $1.4 million in City Council funds, including more than $400,000 sponsored directly by Mr. Martinez, who represents a large swath of Upper Manhattan, according to council records.
The nature of the charges that are expected to be filed are still not known. A staff member at Mr. Martinez’s district office said the councilman was not immediately available for comment.
His attorney, G. Michael Bellinger, did not return a phone call Tuesday morning.
“This is a sad day for the City Council, for the 10th Council District and for the City of New York,” Ms. Quinn said in a statement.
“The Council and I take this matter very seriously, and we will continue to be fully cooperative with authorities.”
Mr. Martinez took office in January 2002 and was chairman of the Fire and Criminal Justice Services Committee, a post that added a $10,000 stipend to his $112,000 annual salary. There has been some speculation among City Hall watchers that his expected resignation was part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors. A spokeswoman with the United States attorney’s office declined to discuss any plea negotiations that might be taking place. But the office is not known for using elected office as plea fodder, as it made clear last year when it issued a news release emphatically denying broad speculation that Gov. Eliot Spitzer was resigning as part of an agreement with prosecutors.
The Upper Manhattan Council Assisting Neighbors was one of dozens of nonprofit groups that investigators have been closely examining as part of a sprawling investigation into the City Council’s discretionary funding.
The investigation has led to the indictments of two former Council aides on embezzlement charges. The aides, Asquith Reid, the former chief of staff for Councilman Kendall Stewart, and Joycinth Anderson, who also worked for Mr. Stewart, pleaded guilty last month to embezzling more than $145,000 that Mr. Stewart had earmarked for a foundation run by Mr. Reid. They are awaiting sentencing. Mr. Stewart was not implicated.
Also last month, City Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo’s nephew and another person were charged with embezzling $200,000 from a nonprofit group closely affiliated with Ms. Arroyo and her mother, State Assemblywoman Carmen E. Arroyo.
And investigators issued subpoenas to landlords who leased space to City Councilman Larry B. Seabrook and several nonprofit groups closely linked to him after it was revealed that the groups had billed New York City more than $100,000 in inflated rent payments over two and half years.
Mr. Martinez has kept somewhat of a low profile in the council the last few months, though he has still appeared at meetings and has continued to vote. He had also raised more than $46,000 for his re-election campaign, and had a fund-raising lead over all but one of his nine rivals. Ydanis Rodriguez, who lost to Mr. Martinez in 2001 and again in 2003, had raised $50,000. Neither had turned in their latest campaign filings, which are due Wednesday.
Mr. Martinez has also had a troubled history with the Campaign Finance Board, which fined him $44,780 in January 2008 and ordered him to repay $128,786 he received in public matching funds for his 2001 campaign. In its decision, the board said the Martinez campaign submitted fabricated receipts to account for spending but stopped short of accusing him of fraud. Mr. Martinez insisted all the invoices were legitimate and that the problems were due to miscommunication between his campaign staff and the board.
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