Poor Mr. Seminerio, who took in over $100k in compensation annually as Assemblyman to the 38th District in Queens (Richmond Hill/Glendale), felt so pinched that he decided to begin to charge for his political influence.
From the NYTimes article:
According to federal prosecutors, Mr. Seminerio realized that he had done favors for people in the health care and hospital industry, and that those people sometimes made thousands of dollars from those favors.
So he decided to start charging for his services, prosecutors say, even though they were part of his job as a legislator.
According to a criminal complaint, he described his strategy about a year ago to an acquaintance without realizing that the man was working undercover for the F.B.I. or that their conversation was being recorded.
The complaint quotes Mr. Seminerio as saying, “From now on, you know, I’m a consultant.”
Honestly, I just used the fact that he once sponsored a Bill to paddle juvenile Graffiti offenders as an excuse to post about his disgraceful exit from public service. He is the one that deserves a public paddling, preferably by a Gay rights activist, as he was no fan of them either.
Excerpt from Bill No. A00466:
An act to amend the family court act and the penal law, in relation to authorizing the use of paddling as punishment for juvenile delinquents and youthful offenders found to have committed an act of graffiti
