POL TOOK NY KIDS' $$: FEDS
A Brooklyn assemblywoman bilked the city out of money meant for a children’s nonprofit and lied under oath to extract cash from Hurricane Sandy relief programs so she could live like a princess — spending thousands on lavish vacations and lingerie, federal authorities charged Tuesday.
And then, when Coney Island Democrat Pamela Harris found out the feds were on to her, she instructed witnesses to lie to investigators, according to an 11count indictment unsealed in Brooklyn federal court.
Prosecutors say Harris, 57, who was arrested Tuesday, accepted $35,000 in City Council discretionary funds for a nonprofit she ran before taking office — but instead funneled the dough into her personal bank account before spending the cash on frilly things from Victoria’s Secret, paying down the mortgage on her Coney Island home and dropping $10,000 on vacations with her husband.
Harris, who won a special election in 2015 and then a full two-year term in 2016, refused to say whether she would step down as she left Brooklyn federal court Tuesday afternoon.
Prosecutors say she forged a lease stating she was renting space for her Coney Island youth nonprofit Generation Gap, when in reality, she ran the group out of her own Neptune Avenue house and pocketed the funds, the indictment states.
She is also accused of stealing nearly $25,000 from a federal program to rebuild after Hurricane Sandy by taking aid meant for displaced storm victims.
Despite being able to stay in her Neptune Avenue home, she claimed she was displaced and forged a lease and rent receipts to collect $1,500 a month in federal emergency-housing money, the indictment alleges.
She also is accused of com- mitting bankruptcy-court fraud by hiding $10,000 in investments and lying about her income when she filed for Chapter 13 protection in November 2013, prosecutors say.
Harris caught wind of the FBI investigation in 2016 and, despite her oath of office, instructed two witnesses to lie to the feds, prosecutors allege.
“The brazen corruption charged as a result of this investigation tramples on the very definition of a public servant,” city Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark Peters said in a statement.
Harris’ political mentor, Coney Island Councilman Mark Treyger — who is not named in the indictment — has directed at least $65,000 in city funds to her nonprofit since 2014, public records show.
Treyger spokesman Aaron Hecht said the allegations are “serious and troubling, and are deeply disappointing if true.”
The cash came after the coun- cil tightened restrictions on discretionary spending in 2014 to crack down on corruption.
If convicted, Harris could face up to 30 years imprisonment for making false statements to FEMA; 20 years each on wirefraud conspiracy, two counts of wire fraud, witness tampering, and obstruction-of-justice conspiracy charges; and five years apiece on five other fraud charges, prosecutors said.
A friend posted her $150,000 bail, and Judge Ramon Reyes limited her travel to New York City, Long Island and Albany.
“[Harris] has pleaded not guilty and we look forward to our day in court and an opportunity there to present the full facts,” lawyer Joel Cohen said. “Importantly, none of the allegations contained in the indictment relate to Ms. Harris’ conduct in office.”
Looks like the Albany-to-prison pipeline is still going strong: On Tuesday, the feds charged Assemblywoman Pamela Harris (D-B’klyn) with fraud, conspiracy, witness tampering and obstruction. Prosecutors say the shenanigans began before Harris took office in 2015. From 2012 to 2014, they charge, she bilked FEMA out of $25,000 by falsely claiming Hurricane Sandy forced her from her home.
In 2014, she allegedly swiped $23,000 in City Council funds meant for a kids’ nonprofit. (The Post reported Harris’ shady ties to the group in 2016.) She’s also accused of lying in a 2013 bankruptcy filing.
And becoming a lawmaker allegedly didn’t stop Harris from being a lawbreaker. Other charges say she snookered the council out of another $11,400 in 2015-17, and also milked the city’s post-Sandy Build It Back program. She also allegedly got witnesses to lie to the feds during the investigation. She has pled not guilty.
Ironically, Harris won the Assembly seat that Alec Brook-Krasny left to take a privatesector job, which later won him an indictment for pumping $6.3 million in pills onto the black market. (He also pled not guilty.)
She joins the four dozen or so state lawmakers who’ve faced major legal or ethical charges since 2000 — including, of course, former legislative kingpins Shelly Silver and Dean Skelos.
Toss in the former key Gov. Cuomo associates who face criminal trials this year, plus the several City Council members sent to the hoosegow as well as other local officals across the state, and the only thing that stands out about Harris is that she ran for office after starting her alleged crime spree.
Is New York’s political system just designed to attract thieves?
Maybe the larcenous just think of it the way Willie Sutton thought of banks: New York politics is where the money is.