Developer admits trying to fix election
Real estate developer Shalom Lamm pleaded guilty to conspiracy Tuesday for trying to corrupt an election in the Sullivan County village of Bloomingburg.
Lamm, 57, pleaded guilty in federal court in White Plains to one count of “conspiracy to corrupt the electoral process.” He faces up to five years in prison when sentenced in September.
Lamm faced resistance to his effort to build the large Chestnut Ridge residential project in Bloomingburg, so he paid people, some of whom never lived in the village or intended to do so, to register and vote there in 2014 for village candidates who favored his project.
The effort ultimately failed, as the positions of mayor and two village trustees were won by opponents of the development plan.
The scheme also included creating and backdating false leases and placing items like toothbrushes and toothpaste in unoccupied apartments to make it seem as if the falsely registered voters live there.
Lamm’s co-defendant in the case, Kenneth Nakdimen, pleaded guilty on May 25 to one count of conspiracy to corrupt the electoral process. He, too, is to be sentenced in September.
Lamm and Nakdimen were indicted by a federal grand jury in December 2016.
The indictment accused Lamm of agreeing to pay an individual $500 for every voter that the person procured, and it said Lamm and Nakdimen’s real estate company ultimately paid the individual more than $30,000 per month.
In the same case, former town of Mamakating Supervisor Harold Baird pleaded guilty to conspiring to submit a false voter registration so he could run for office in Bloomingburg. Bloomingburg sits within Mamakating, but Baird lived outside of the village.