Brownsville

Assemblyman Boyland charged with mail fraud

March 18, 2013 From U.S. Attorney's Office
Former Brooklyn Assemblymember William Boyland Jr., seen here in 2011, will continue to serve his 14-year sentence in federal prison after the Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction. AP Photo
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Monday, Loretta E. Lynch, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and George Venizelos, assistant director in charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), New York Field Office, announced charges of mail fraud against New York State Assemblyman William F. Boyland Jr. (D-Brooklyn).

The superseding indictment against Boyland was filed yesterday in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, which added new charges of mail fraud in connection with an alleged scheme to defraud New York State by submitting fraudulent vouchers for travel expense and per diem payments.

The  indictment also includes the charges from the underlying indictment against Boyland, charging him with bribery and attempted Hobbs Act extortion for soliciting more than $250,000 in bribes and accepting thousands of dollars of bribe money in exchange for performing official acts for the bribe payers.

According to the superseding indictment, from January 2007 to December 2011, Boyland, who represents Ocean Hill, Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, and Bushwick, fraudulently submitted New York State Assembly Member Travel vouchers, in which he falsely claimed to be in Albany on legislative business.

State records show that based on these vouchers, New York state paid Boyland tens of thousands of dollars in mileage expense and per diem payments, according to the indictment.

 
On some of the days on which Boyland claimed that he was in Albany and thus entitled to mileage expense and per diem payments, Boyland was instead in New York City, meeting with people he believed to be businessmen and real estate developers, but who actually were the undercover FBI agents from whom he solicited bribes, according to investigators.

In addition, E-ZPass records associated with Boyland’s vehicle and New York State Assembly records reflect that Boyland was not in Albany on the days when he claimed on vouchers to be there on legislative business, said the indictment.

If convicted, Boyland faces a maximum sentence on each fraud charge of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and restitution.

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