SANDY SCAM-BAG
B’klyn pol lied to get FEMA funds, spent $10,000 on lingerie & lavish trips, and urged pals to help in failed coverup: feds
AMID THE post-Hurricane Sandy rubble of Breezy Point and the 24 dead bodies on Staten Island, Pamela Harris — who would later become a state assemblywoman — turned a profit on New York’s pain.
As Coney Island neighbors and the rest of the city struggled with the massive 2012 devastation, Harris lined her pockets with cash meant to aid the hurricane’s newly homeless, a federal indictment charges.
Harris spent $10,000 on vacations, including a cruise ship getaway, and shopped at Victoria’s Secret with her dirty money, authorities charged Tuesday.
And she allegedly urged witnesses to lie to the FBI in a failed coverup of her crimes.
“Harris was busy brewing a storm of her own — one that resulted in her receiving significant payouts by the very federal agency charged with helping those truly in need,” said FBI New York field office head William Sweeney.
In all, Harris looted about $60,000 in state and federal funds in several scams, including Federal Emergency Management Agency money for “temporary housing assistance” after the hurricane, officials charged.
But her Coney Island residence was intact, with officials charging that Harris took nearly $25,000 from FEMA by filing phony paperwork to cover the cost of a “rental” home and pocketing the cash.
She was freed on $150,000 bond Tuesday afternoon, hours after her morning arrest for allegedly scamming government funds between 2012 and 2016.
“Ms. Harris has been an invaluable community organizer and a well-regarded legislator,” said a statement from her attorneys. “Especially given her background, we are disappointed that Ms. Harris was indicted.
“She has pleaded not guilty, and we look forward to her day in court and an opportunity there to present the full facts.”
Harris, 57, is a former correction officer and previously served as head of a Coney Island nonprofit. She was accused of stealing $34,000 in cash provid-
ed by the City Council to pay rent for her group.
She stepped down as head of the Coney Island Generation Gap, a training and mentoring group, in November 2015 when she was elected to the Assembly in a special election. She was reelected the next year.
Harris, who appeared poised and professional in a black pantsuit and heels, is due back in court on Tuesday. She left court without comment, climbing into a blue sports car with plates reading “MYBIGDAD.”
She later marched past a reporter at her Coney Island house without saying a word.
The probe was handled jointly by the FBI, the U.S. attorney’s office and the city Department of Investigation.
“The brazen corruption charged as a result of this investigation tramples on the very definition of a public servant,” said Investigations Commissioner Mark Peters.
Harris, in addition to her vacation spending, used other stolen funds to pay her lingerie tab at Victoria’s Secret and her bills at Kohl’s, along with paying off the mortgage on her Coney Island home.
After Hurricane Sandy hit in October 2012, Harris actually stayed in her undamaged Brooklyn house while allegedly filing phony rent payment receipts and a bogus lease agreement for a Staten Island residence.
FEMA then compensated her for the cost of her temporary home.
Harris was also charged with trying to illegally collect funds from the city’s Build It Back program for Sandy victims whose homes were destroyed by the storm.
The Democrat, who represents parts of southern Brooklyn — including Coney Island and Bay Ridge — could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the top count in her 11-count indictment. She was charged with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, making false statements, bankruptcy fraud, witness tampering and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
The indictment “just underscores that the issue of corruption in Albany is not going away,” said Bill Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group.
Indeed, the Harris indictment starts what looms as a year of corruption trials, starting this month with the prosecution of Joe Percoco, a former senior aide to Gov. Cuomo.
Disgraced former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos are up for retrial later this year in Manhattan Federal Court.
Juries convicted the ex-Albany powerhouses in separate trials. But a federal appeals court ordered do-overs, applying a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s corruption convictions.
“It’s just another sad chapter in this legislative body,” said Assemblywoman Sandra Galef (DWestchester County). “I’m just shocked and surprised. She is well-liked.”
Her predecessor in the Brooklyn district, Alec Brook-Krasny, was indicted last year in connection with the takedown of three pill mills accused of putting $6.3 million of opioids on the black market.