Former southern Brooklyn assemblymember expected to plead guilty today
Former Assemblymember Pamela Harris – who was indicted earlier this year on a variety of fraud and corruption charges – is expected to plead guilty today in Brooklyn Federal Court.
The Daily News reports that Harris, 57 – who stepped down in April after being charged in January with two counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, four counts of making false statements, two counts of bankruptcy fraud, one count of witness tampering and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice – will cop to charges arising out of a variety of self-enrichment schemes that arose in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.
According to the indictment, Harris defrauded various government entities of tens of thousands of dollars, beginning in 2012, prior to her election, by claiming her Coney Island home was made uninhabitable by the storm. The indictment further claims that she also enriched herself by diverting funding allocated to the not-for-profit organization that she ran as executive director to her own, personal use.