New York Senate via Reuters

New York state Senator and former Minority Leader John Sampson is shown in this undated photo provided by the New York Senate.

New York State Sen. John Sampson, a Democrat representing parts of Brooklyn, New York City, was indicted Monday on federal charges of embezzlement, obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI, officials said.

Sampson was a court-appointed referee to watch over escrow accounts for sales of foreclosed properties in Brooklyn. It's alleged he embezzled $440,000 between 1998 and 2008.

He's also accused of funneling funds into his failed campaign for Brooklyn DA.

The charges against Sampson come less than a week after prosecutors revealed that former Sen. Shirley Huntley made numerous secret recordings of other elected officials in a bid for leniency in her own corruption case.

Sampson, who represents the 19th senatorial district encompassing Canarsie, East New York, Mill Basin, Marine Park and Sheepshead Bay, was elected to the Senate in 1996. 

He is a member and past chairman of the New York Senate Judiciary Committee. 

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Senate Democratic Conference Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said Sampson has been stripped of his ranking positions and committee assignments.

FBI Assistant Director George Venizelos said in a statement Monday that "incumbent and defendant cannot be accepted as interchangeable."

"Elected officials are referred to as public servants, and that should not be confused with self-serving," he said.

Messages left with Sampson's district office and his attorney were not immediately returned.

U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said Sampson allegedly abused public trust "for years" and stole from New Yorkers whose homes were in foreclosure.

“But the former Senate ethics leader didn’t stop there," Lynch said in a statement. "Senator Sampson allegedly stole that money to fund his own ambition to become Brooklyn’s top state prosecutor, then engaged in an elaborate obstruction scheme to hide his illegal conduct, going so far as to counsel lies and the hiding of evidence.”

The allegations against Sampson follow last month's arrests of State Sen. Malcolm Smith, New York City Councilman Daniel Halloran and two New York City GOP leaders on federal bribery charges.

According to court documents, Smith, a Democrat, allegedly schemed with Halloran, a Republican, to bribe Bronx and Queens Republican county chairs for a GOP line on this year's mayoral ballot. All four pleaded not guilty to various corruption charges in late April.

Separately, New York State Assemblyman Eric Stevenson was also arrested in April, charged with accepting bribes in exchange for official acts. He denies the allegations.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced several anti-corruption proposals in the wake of the bribery scandal. 

Six politicians are slated to be arraigned Tuesday in a case that alleges, among other charges, a scheme to buy one lawmaker a spot on New York City’s mayoral ballot.

Defense lawyers announced Monday that all six defendants, including embattled state Sen. Malcolm Smith, are expected to plead not guilty at Tuesday’s arraignment. 

Smith is accused of conspiring with New York City Councilman Daniel Halloran, a Republican, to bribe county Republican leaders for a place on the GOP mayoral ticket. The indictment alleges that two top Republican operatives, Joseph Savino and Vincent Tabone, accepted tens of thousands of dollars in exchange for supporting Smith's political bid, NBCNewYork.com reported.

Smith never formally launched a campaign to replace outgoing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. According to NBCNewYork.com, Smith, a Democrat, would have required authorization from three of the city’s five GOP county chairmen to run as a Republican candidate.

Halloran stands accused of agreeing to siphon off City Council funds to a private company in exchange for additional bribes.

“That’s politics, it’s all about how much,” Halloran is quoted as saying in the indictment, according to The Associated Press. “Not about whether or will, it’s about how much, and that’s our politicians in New York, they’re all like that.”

Reuters / Mike Segar

New York State Senator Malcolm Smith makes his way through a crush of media to a waiting car after appearing in United States Court in White Plains, New York on April 2.

Smith, Halloran, Savino and Tabone were arrested by the FBI on April 2, following an extensive federal probe.

The corruption investigation also concerns Spring Valley Mayor Noramie Jasmin and Deputy Mayor Joseph Desmaret, who are accused of accepting funds and property to sign off on a prospective real estate project. That charge is unrelated to Smith’s and Halloran’s alleged bribery plot.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who announced the complaint against the officials three weeks ago, announced Monday that he has met with the FBI to “discuss expanding our corruption efforts." 

“It seems that a culture of corruption has developed and grown, just like barnacles on a boat bottom,” Bharara said. “And just as with barnacles on a boat bottom, when a growth is permitted to spread and grow unchecked, it unsurprisingly takes an unrelenting, collective effort to clean up.”

A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday found that 48 percent of New Yorkers view corruption as a “very serious” issue – the highest share since the poll began posing the question in 2003, according to The Associated Press.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

New York State Assembly

New York State Assemblyman Eric Stevenson

A Bronx legislator was charged Thursday with taking $22,000 in bribes after a fellow lawmaker trying to save his own skin wore a wire for the feds, blowing open the latest corruption case to rock New York politics.

The arrest of Assemblyman Eric Stevenson – who allegedly drafted a bill at the behest of four businessmen lining his pockets -- comes just days after six other politicians were arrested in an unrelated graft case.

And there may be more arrests to come.

Assemblyman Nelson Castro, who helped prosecutors go after Stevenson, said in a statement that he has been cooperating for four years in “various investigations aimed at rooting out public corruption.”

Castro, who will not face charges, resigned his seat Thursday under the terms of his deal with prosecutors. Stevenson’s office said he had no comment, and his lawyer could not be reached.

In a statement dripping with disgust, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the new allegations revealed that the state capital was overrun with crooks.

“It becomes more and more difficult to avoid the sad conclusion that political corruption in New York is indeed rampant and that a show-me-the-money culture in Albany is alive and well,” Bharara said.

Castro was just a fledgling assemblyman when he was secretly indicted in 2009 on a perjury charge stemming from a civil case, he said. He began cooperating with prosecutors after that, according to court documents that did not refer to him by name.

A criminal complaint said that in meetings at a diner, a steakhouse and a hotel room, a group of businessmen bribed Castro and Stevenson to help them open day-care centers for senior citizens.

Stevenson, a two-term Democrat, allegedly agreed to use his influence with a utility company and the city Buildings Department to expedite the opening – and his law-making abilities to crush any competition.

He was captured on tape making a deal to draw up legislation that would impose a moratorium on new centers, effectively giving the gang of four a monopoly, the complaint says.

"You can write down the language, basically what you want," he allegedly told a go-between for the businessmen, an unnamed wannabe pol who also ended up cooperating with the probe.

Stevenson eventually introduced the moratorium bill, which Bharara called “a fairly neat trick that offends both the core principles of both democracy and capitalism.”

He also was caught talking about the payoffs – sometimes referred to as “blessings” -- on tape, prosecutors said.

"Are they putting together a nice little package for me?" he allegedly asked the informant on Dec. 27, going on to discuss his mounting expenses. "I got my inauguration...I gotta feed all the people."

Despite the indiscretions, Stevenson was apparently aware that authorities could be monitoring him.

He warned about "recorders" and refused to accept cash in a restaurant where he spotted surveillance cameras, waiting until he was outside to put the padded envelope in his front pocket, the complaint said.

During the Dec. 27 rendezvous, Stevenson and the informant chatted about a rogue's gallery of state legislators who had ended up in jail -- and how pervasive misdeeds are in the capital, according to the court papers.

"Bottom line, if half of the people up here in Albany was ever caught for what they do, they would probably be in the same place," he was quoted as saying, discussing how former state controller Alan Hevesi had aged while locked up.

That was three months before another state lawmaker, Sen. Malcolm Smith, would join the ranks of Albany power brokers accused of abusing the public trust.

On Tuesday, Smith, a New York City councilman and four other politicians were charged in a bribery scheme aimed at getting Smith a spot on the GOP ballot in the city mayoral election.

A University of Illinois at Chicago study last year found that New York ranked first in the country for public corruption, racking up 2,522 convictions between 1976 and 2010.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Related:

Lawmaker accused of bribes in NYC mayoral race plot

WDSU

A gun is seen in a still from the video shown in court in New Orleans

A New Orleans parish released a shocking video on Tuesday that shows inmates doing drugs, gambling, waving a hand gun and drinking beer.

It was the second day of a federal hearing on the Orleans Parish Prison spending money to fix and refurbish jails. It is not clear when the video was recorded.

Manny Romero, a prison consultant who testified, said he had never seen such a dysfunction in a jail and that the amount and nature of some of the contraband suggests prisoners may have had help from jail staff in obtaining it, New Orleans NBC affiliate WDSU reported.

Fights, sexual assaults and drug use among inmates have been going on at the prison for years, according to WDSU. But Tuesday's video was the first time footage of these allegations was seen. The federal investigators said these problems are widespread at the prison.

Sheriff Marlin Gusman issued a statement saying the prison was “in a state of disrepair and abhorrent lack of proper security measures” and that was why he closed it last year.

Irfan Khan / Pool via Getty Images

Five former Bell City Council members, shown in court on Wednesday, were found guilty of stealing public money by paying themselves extraordinary salaries in one of Los Angeles County's poorest cities. On Thursday, a mistrial was declared on the remaining counts.

A mistrial was declared Thursday afternoon on the remaining charges against five former Bell elected officials.

Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy had asked jurors to decide whether further deliberations would help break a deadlock on the remaining charges.

The judge noted, however, that based on a flurry of testy communications from the panel, "It seems to me that all hell has broken loose in the jury deliberation room."

Read more on NBCLosAngeles.com

The defendants had been convicted of counts related to the city’s Solid Waste and Recycling Authority, but acquitted on counts related to the Public Housing Authority.

The jury had deadlocked on 42 charges related to pay for service on two additional boards.

On Wednesday, the jury had reached the following conclusions:

• Ex-mayor Oscar Hernandez: guilty on five counts; not guilty on five counts. No verdict on 10 counts.
• Former Councilwoman Teresa Jacobo: guilty on five counts; not guilty on five counts. No verdict on 10 counts.
• Former Councilman George Mirabal: guilty on five counts; not guilty on five counts. No verdict on 10 counts.
• Former Councilman Victor Bello: guilty on four counts; not guilty on four counts. No verdict on eight counts.
• Former Councilman George Cole: guilty of two counts; not guilty on two counts. No verdict on four counts.

Former Councilman Luis Artiga was acquitted on all charges.

Related: Multiple guilty verdicts in Bell, Calif., corruption trial

Charles Rex Arbogast / AP

William Cellini, center, departs the federal courthouse with unidentified family members after Judge James Zagel sentenced him to 366 days in prison and a $75,000 fine on Thursday in Chicago.

CHICAGO -- A federal judge sentenced former Illinois powerbroker William Cellini to a year in prison Thursday for conspiring to shake down a movie producer, capping off the last trial to stem from the investigation of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Cellini, 77, was once known to political insiders as the "King of Clout" for his behind-the-scenes influence in state government. The multimillionaire businessman was convicted last year for his role in trying to get a $1.5 million campaign contribution for Blagojevich from Thomas Rosenberg, the Oscar-winning producer of "Million Dollar Baby," in exchange for state business.

Judge James Zagel's sentence of one year and one day in prison was more than the probation defense attorneys sought but far less than the 6 ½- to eight years in prison recommended by prosecutors. Zagel said he took into account Cellini's poor health, including a heart attack he had in June. The judge also fined Cellini $75,000.

"This was a series of extremely unwise decisions," Zagel said in sentencing Cellini. However, he also noted Cellini's acts of charity and said the 364 letters he received from Cellini supporters was more than he'd ever seen for anyone.

Defense attorneys described Cellini's numerous health problems, including blood clots that he has had and is at risk for having in the future.

"Mr. Cellini is in the twilight of his life," defense attorney Dan Webb told Zagel.

'Hard message'
Both sides asked the judge to take Cellini's health into account, but prosecutors said the conviction still warranted prison time because public officials were involved.

Federal prosecutor Julie Porter said that Cellini's "crimes are very significant."

The Chicago Tribune quoted Porter as saying:

"If you violate the public trust, you are going to jail. You are going to lose your liberty. This is a hard message, but it is a necessary message. … It does not matter if you are 27 or 77. It does not matter if you are rich or poor."

Cellini took notes during the hearing and sat at times with his eyes closed. He read from a short statement, thanking friends and family for their support and telling the judge he didn't think he had long to live. He asked for probation but also said he took responsibility for his actions.

"My family and I suffered greatly over these past five years," he said, referring to his legal problems. Members of his family sitting in the courtroom wiped tears.

Cellini doesn't have to report to prison until Jan. 4, and the judge said he did that to give Cellini more time deal with his health problems.

Cellini left court Thursday without speaking to reporters. His defense attorneys said they were disappointed in the sentence and were considering an appeal of his conviction.

Cellini, a Springfield Republican, was appointed Illinois transportation secretary in the early 1970s. He then used his state connections to help earn tens of millions from real estate, casino and other ventures.

Despite his wealth and influence, Cellini maintained a low profile and rarely spoke in public. It was his association with Blagojevich that drew him into legal peril.

Cellini was one of more than a dozen people ensnared by the decade-long investigation into Blagojevich. The ousted governor was sentenced last year to 14 years in prison on corruption charges, including allegations that he sought to sell or trade an appointment to President Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat. The Chicago Democrat began serving his sentence at a federal prison in Colorado in March.

Webb noted that Cellini wouldn't have pocketed any money from the shakedown of Rosenberg. Instead, prosecutors contend he saw it as a chance to further ingratiate himself with those in power.

Acting U.S. Attorney Gary Shapiro called Cellini one of the "principal movers and shakers in the corruption" that "pervaded Springfield."

But Shapiro said he doesn't expect this to be the end of corruption in Illinois.

"I'd like to think we're never going to be prosecuting corrupt Illinois politicians again," Shapiro told reporters after the hearing. "But I'd be insane to make that prediction."

The Chicago Tribune quoted Shapiro as saying Cellini's sentence should serve as a warning.

"I think there is something to be said for incarceration for a person in Bill Cellini's position … In certain communities, sentences of incarceration do send messages, and this is a small community we are talking about — the sort of bipartisan cabal of Illinois, the people that are the behind-the-scenes folks that fuel the corruption and raise the money. Those people pay attention to things like this, and they pay attention when someone who is almost 78 goes to prison."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Mel Evans / AP file

In this July 7, 2011 file photo, Trenton Mayor Tony Mack listens to a question in Trenton, N.J. He was arrested Monday in connection with a corruption probe.

Updated at 3:10 p.m. ET: Federal authorities arrested Trenton, N.J., Mayor Tony Mack and more than half a dozen other people early Monday in connection with an ongoing corruption probe, NBC 4 New York has learned.

Joseph "JoJo" Giorgianni, a top campaign contributor, and six others were also taken into custody. Specific charges against the suspects are expected to be outlined by Paul Fishman, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, later Monday.

See the original report  |  More from NBCNewYork.com

Mack and the others arrested Monday were brought to the FBI office in Hamilton for processing and are scheduled to appear in federal court.

A federal magistrate on Monday ordered Mack released on $150,000 bond provided he not leave the state while free on bail, The Associated Press reported. 

The arrests are the latest development in an ongoing federal investigation into alleged corruption within Mack's administration, which has been marked by accusations of nepotism and reckless spending. In July, FBI agents searched offices in Trenton City Hall a day after raiding the mayor's home. They also searched the home of his brother, Ralpiel Mack, and that of Giorgianni.

Mack's administration has been in turmoil from Day 1, staggering from one crisis to another. A housecleaning of staff at City Hall opened the door for Mack's own appointees, who quickly turned it into a revolving door. Some left over questions about their credentials, others to face criminal charges.

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In Mack's first year in office in Trenton, a city of 85,000, he ran through a string of business administrators. The first resigned after a month, saying the mayor didn't believe in "good government." Another resigned just ahead of pleading guilty to embezzlement at another job.

Mack's housing director quit after it emerged that he had a theft conviction. His chief of staff was arrested trying to buy heroin. His half-brother, whose authority he elevated at the city water plant, was arrested on charges of stealing.

Questions have also been raised about how he financed his campaign for mayor.

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A former longtime city employee sued the mayor late last year. The parks department employee said she was let go after refusing to dole out jobs for the mayor's friends, refusing to give federal grant money to people who didn't apply and for inquiring about city funds she said were missing.

The ex-employee also said she was replaced by a Mack supporter who never showed up for his $40,000-a-year job.

A former campaign aide told NBC 4 New York he disassociated with Mack when he "saw the way he was going."

"This is not a surprise," Jerell Blakley said of the probe into Mack's activities. "A lot of people in Trenton were of the opinion -- not of if, but when."

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