NY assemblywoman describes Ed Ahmad as shady broker

Jul 03, 2015 News

New York (New York Daily News) – A Westchester assemblywoman testified Wednesday that she felt State Sen. John Sampson misled her about his ties to a shady broker seeking help from Albany to expand his real estate business.
Shelley Mayer (D-Yonkers) was senior counsel to the Senate Democrat Conference in 2011 when Sampson asked her to help his friend, Ed Ahmad, obtain more foreclosure work as part of an initiative to boost the participation of minorities and women in the process.
“I had an uncomfortable feeling about Ed Ahmad and wanted to check him out,” Mayer said in Brooklyn Federal Court where Sampson is on trial for obstructing an FBI probe.

Assemblywoman Shelley Mayer (D-Yonkers)

“I found a document on the (state) Department of State web site that his (Ahmad’s) license had been revoked,” she said.
More disturbing, Mayer discovered that an attorney from Sampson’s private law firm was representing Ahmad in the matter.
“I was uncomfortable with the fact that Ed Ahmad appeared to be a client of Sen. Sampson’s firm and not just a constituent. I understood them to have a lawyer-client relationship which was different than what I had been led to believe.”
Federal prosecutors contend that Sampson was attempting to do political favours for Ahmad because he could not repay a $188,500 loan that the businessman had given the once-powerful Democrat. Sampson allegedly needed the money to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars he had embezzled from outside legal work.
Ahmad pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud and agreed to be a cooperating witness for the government.
Meanwhile, Federal Judge Dora Irizarry, who had previously thrown out the embezzlement charges against Sampson on a legal technicality, dealt his defence team a severe setback Wednesday when she tossed out a document his lawyers produced out of thin air on Tuesday, which they suggested was a hand-written loan agreement between Ahmad and Sampson.
Sampson had told the feds during a proffer session that he could not locate any documents relating to the $188,500 loan and Ahmad had no recollection of ever writing it.
The judge said she was also striking all of Ahmad’s testimony about the document.
“This is totally unfair,” the defence lawyer complained to the judge. “It totally eviscerates our defence.”
Sampson stalked out of the courtroom shaking his head. “That’s ridiculous, man,” he fumed.