NY State Assemblyman & 4 Others Charged with Bribery for Alleged Scheme to Sell Legislation for Cash

NY State Assemblyman & 4 Others Charged with Bribery for Alleged Scheme to Sell Legislation for Cash

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and Bronx County District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announce the unsealing of a Complaint charging New York State Assemblyman Eric Stevenson with accepting bribes in exchange for official acts. Stevenson is charged with taking more than $22,000 in bribes from Igor Belyansky, Rostislav Belyansky (a/k/a "Slava"), Igor Tsimerman, and David Binman, all of whom are also charged, in exchange for Stevenson's official acts, which include drafting, proposing, and agreeing to enact legislation. Specifically, Belyansky, Slava, Tsimerman, and Binman, who were interested in operating and constructing adult day care centers in the Bronx, allegedly paid Stevenson to sponsor, and ultimately cause to be enacted, legislation that would declare a three-year moratorium on the construction of adult day care centers in New York City, but from which their current centers would be exempted. In connection with one of the defendants' adult day care centers on Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, Stevenson is also alleged to have used his office to facilitate the issuance of a certificate of occupancy and the installation of a gas line. In addition, he is alleged to have held events in his official capacity to recruit senior citizens to attend a second center on Westchester Avenue in the Bronx. Four of the defendants were arrested this morning and the fifth, Tsimerman, self-surrendered. A second Assemblyman cooperated in the investigation and has agreed to resign.