The Queens Courier is reporting that disgraced former Assemblyman Anthony Seminero died in a federal prison today.
The 75-year-old Seminero served Queens for three decades but his name became synonymous with legislative corruption when he plead guilty in 2009 of shaking down close to $1 million from hospitals, schools and other entities that had business before the legislature.
During his sentencing, Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald ruled that Seminero had “accepted bribes and engaged in extortion as part of a decade-long scheme to use his office – both literally and figuratively – for personal gain and at the expense of the public trust” and sentenced him to six years in prison.
