Former New York State Assembly member Frank Seddio told The Politicker this afternoon that he spoke with indicted State Senator Carl Kruger last week after an associate of the Brooklyn lawmaker said he helped Kruger and his top aide solicit bribes.
“I didn’t do a thing. [Chief of Staff] Jason [Koppel] didn’t do a thing. This guy is a fucking liar,” Seddio said Kruger told him.
Seddio, who serves as a district leader in Kruger’s southeast Brooklyn district, has been a close ally of the Senator’s since they served on the local community board together in the early 1970’s.
“I don’t know what will happen with Carl Kruger but anytime I have dealt with him he has been an honest broker,” Seddio said, adding that he would not turn his back on Kruger now. “I stand on the belief that you stand by your friends. If that is something that would hurt me so be it. I am not going to shrink away from people that I have a relationship with just because some one made an allegation.”
The Brooklyn Paper has a good summary of Kruger’s involvement in the FBI case against his former associate, restauranteur Michael Levitis:
The federal case appears to boil down to this: Levitis, a lawyer who co-owns the Rasputin Supper Club on Coney Island Avenue and Avenue X, allegedly recommended to a restaurateur working with the FBI that he make a donation to Kruger’s campaign. In turn, Kruger would handle the eatery owner’s problems with the State Liquor Authority, Levitis alleged.
“To start off, you have to throw in a few thousand,” Levitis explained during a conversation recorded on April 14, 2009. “[It] depends on whether the problem is big or small. How much work he has to put in.”
The informant gave Levitis $3,000 – $2,000 for Kruger and $1,000 for Levitis’s help in brokering the deal. Levitis told the informant he gave Kruger’s money to Jason Koppel, the senator’s chief of staff, but it’s unclear if the donation was ever handed over.
On Sept. 18, Levitis contacted the undercover restaurateur again, claiming that his hearing with the State Liquor Authority was postponed for two weeks.
“So, for now, you can still work,” Levitis explained. “He [Kruger] asked that you do a fundraiser. I said, ‘Help first.’ But he does want you to do a fundraiser.”
If Kruger resigns, Seddio, who was a Brooklyn surrogate judge before being brought down in his own corruption scandal, would be a potential candidate to replace him.
However, Seddio said that he did not believe that Kruger would step aside quickly.
“If I know anything about Carl Kruger he will fight this tooth and nail.”