Leonard Litwin’s Glenwood Management, at the center of both Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos’ corruption trials, also doled out hundreds of thousands of dollars to members of the state Senate Ethics Committee.
The developer, the largest political donor in the state of New York in 2014, has contributed $227,000 in total to members of the committee since 2012.
Sen. Phil Boyle (R-LI) was the top recipient of Glenwood’s generosity, taking in $105,000. Queens Democrats Sen. Tony Avella and Sen. Michael Gianaris took in $40,000 and $25,000, respectively.
Other senators — Hugh Farley (R-Schenectady), Terrence Murphy (R-Westchester) and Thomas Croci (R-LI) — also received contributions, according to the New York Post.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has received about $1.2 million from the company over his career. Mayor Bill de Blasio took in $20,200 from Glenwood as well, though he’s pledged to return some of the money.
Of the cash that went to Ethics Committee members, a small part was contributed not by the firm itself, but by LLCs connected with it, a practice that’s recently come under fire.
“If you serve in a position of trust for an ethics watchdog or committee, then you have to lead by example,” John Kaehny, executive director of Reinvent Albany, told the Post. “The ethical and right thing to do would be to return the dirty LLC money.”
In their trials over the past months, both former Senate majority leader Skelos and former Assembly Speaker Silver gave political favors to Glenwood in exchange for contributions and no-show jobs. Both politicians were found guilty of corruption. [NYP] – Ariel Stulberg