A disbarred lawyer and former Republican political fixer who helped prosecutors convict four elected officials got a break of sorts from a federal judge, but will still went to prison.
Anthony Mangone was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for bribery and tax fraud.
He had originally received an 18-month prison term in December, but that sentence was overturned because U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon had relied on the wrong sentencing guideline.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/disgraced-ex-yonkers-city-councilwoman-convicted-bribes-vote-bruce-ratner-project-article-1.1052894
Judge McMahon told Mangone that she could not give him a "trivial" sentence and that the public's confidence in government required her to send a message regardless of his cooperation.
She called public corruption, and specifically bribery of a public official, among the most serious crimes.
Mangone, 42, of Harrison, was given until Sept. 26 to begin serving his prison term. He has requested to serve it at a federal prison in Miami, where he has family.
Prosecutors urged leniency and he and his lawyers sought no prison time, citing his extensive cooperation. Mangone helped the feds convict his co-defendants, former Yonkers Councilwoman #SandyAnnabi and her cousin, former Yonkers GOP chairman #ZehyJereis.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/nyregion/two-convicted-in-yonkers-corruption-case.html
Information he provided also led to guilty pleas by two former Republican state senators — his political mentor Nicholas Spano and Vincent Leibell — and the conviction of a third, Thomas Libous.
Mangone was indicted along with Sandy Annabi and Zehy Jereis in January 2010 on bribery charges.
Jereis had plied Annabi with money and gifts for years to control her vote and cashed in in 2006 when she reversed her opposition to two development deals.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/nyregion/tracking-the-tentacles-of-corruption.html
One was the Ridge Hill project that became the city's biggest-ever development. The other was a comparatively minor land swap deal that #MilioManagement wanted so it could build senior housing at the former Longfellow School.
That's where Mangone fit in: He passed along a $20,000 bribe from his clients, the Milios, to Jereis for Annabi to support the deal.
Mangone began cooperating in March 2010 and pleaded guilty nine months later to bribery and unrelated tax-fraud charges for failing to report cash income he received at his law firm. He repaid more than $82,000 in taxes this year.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/yonkers-pol-sandy-annabi-bribe-ratner-deal-feds-article-1.461698
Mangone had an expensive casino gambling habit, for several years playing blackjack, craps and roulette on a regular basis.
His gambling losses at two Atlantic City casinos totaled $149,000 in 2008 and 2009 and he sometimes used his client escrow accounts to pay down his debts.
Mangone began working for Nick Spano, the powerful senator from Yonkers, in the 1990s and eventually rose to be his chief of staff and chief counsel.
While in law school, Mangone helped engineer a vote-rigging scandal that landed senator Spano the Green Party nomination in his 2000 re-election bid. Mangone admitted that he put Spano's name on more than two dozen absentee ballots belonging to unwitting voters in the Green Party primary.
http://www.westchestermagazine.com/Westchester-Magazine/February-2016/Rise-Fall-Rise-Nick-Spano/
Only one person, political operative Dennis Wedra Sr., was charged in the case. Mangone testified at the grand jury and at the trial that Spano had no knowledge of the scheme.
At Annabi and Jereis' trial, Mangone conceded that he had lied to protect Spano, and that the senator knew what he had done for him to rig the nomination.
Mangone also admitted that in 2006 he and Jereis arranged to pay an unnamed candidate not to run against Spano in the Independence Party primary.
http://westchester.news12.com/story/34891989/alleged-co-conspirators-in-yonkers-bribery-case-maintain-innocence
Defense lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman had sought McMahon's replacement because of some of the things she said about Mangone.
But the Court of Appeals did not remove her, saying she had not shown bias and could remain fair..
Jeffery Lichtman said afterwards he was surprised, but thankful, she had reduced her initial sentence.
https://www.topnewyorkcriminalattorneysblog.com/2016/08/11/update-anthony-mangones-sentence-cut-third/
Via The Yonkers Newswire
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1571550122907946&set=gm.1979251318999103&type=3
No comments:
Post a Comment