Campaign Donor Pleaded Guilty to Trying to Bribe Mayor de Blasio

NEW YORK — A campaign donor to Mayor Bill de Blasio secretly pleaded guilty in federal court to bribery, admitting that he used his contributions to the mayor to try to win favorable lease terms for a restaurant he owned on city property, newly unsealed court records show.

While the court papers included no charges against de Blasio or other city officials, a federal document in the case makes it clear that the donor, Harendra Singh, got something in return.

The court documents said that the mayor took steps to benefit Singh in exchange for the contributions, and that an unnamed senior aide to de Blasio arranged a meeting to pressure a city agency to offer more favorable terms to Singh.

Last March, federal prosecutors who had investigated de Blasio’s fundraising decided not to bring criminal charges against the mayor based on what they described as a high burden of proof and the challenge of proving corruption without “evidence of personal profit.”

Singh’s plea hearing occurred in a sealed Long Island courtroom before U.S. District Court Judge Sandra J. Feuerstein on Oct. 17, 2016; Singh said that his donations were intended as part of a quid pro quo, according to a transcript of the hearing.

“I gave these donations to the elected official in exchange for efforts by that official and other city officials to obtain a lease renewal from the city agency for my restaurant on terms that were favorable to me,” he said.

Singh did not name the mayor, and the court documents refer instead to an “Official #2” who received the donations; various details in the documents make it clear that the unnamed official is de Blasio.

The relationship between Singh and de Blasio had been a focus of investigations by the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York; after an 18-month inquiry, those prosecutors decided against charging the mayor, but harshly criticized him and his fundraising practices.

The characterization of the bribery efforts could undermine de Blasio’s repeated defense of his administration’s ethics.

The newly disclosed documents stem from a separate case against Singh in the Eastern District of New York, where prosecutors there had charged him in September 2015 in a political corruption case in Nassau County.

Singh pleaded guilty in October 2016 to six counts stemming from bribery schemes involving local government officials on Long Island and several businesses he owned there.

He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy, bribery and honest services wire fraud, in connection with campaign contributions to de Blasio, according to the records. Those charges were not previously made public.

The federal information describes Singh’s negotiations with an unnamed New York City agency to renew a lease for one of his businesses. The details in the indictment match Singh’s efforts to renew a lease with the Department of Citywide Administrative Services for his Water’s Edge restaurant, which operated on city property in Queens.

Singh started raising campaign contributions for the unnamed official in 2010, ultimately raising tens of thousands of dollars, according to the records. Singh was one of the earliest large donors when de Blasio began his mayoral campaign in 2010, and he, his family members and other associates ultimately raised a total of about $33,000 for the mayor.

The information also refers to several actions by Singh and city officials that contributed to the conspiracy. It refers to an Oct. 12, 2013, fundraiser that Singh hosted at his restaurant. On that date, campaign finance filings indicate, the de Blasio campaign held a fundraising event at Water’s Edge.

In December 2014, Singh sent an email to an aide to “Official #2” — the mayor — saying that he needed help with the agency involved in his lease renewal, according to the unsealed documents.

On July 30, 2015, the court documents show, a senior aide to “Official #2” arranged a meeting with Singh and the head of the city agency “in an effort to pressure the agency to make its proposed settlement terms more favorable” to Singh. On that date, one of de Blasio’s top aides, Emma Wolfe, held a meeting in City Hall with Singh and the head of the administrative services department, Stacey Cumberbatch, to discuss Singh’s lease.

Neal Kwatra, a lobbyist working with Singh who had a close relationship with Wolfe, also attended the meeting.

The July 2015 meeting in City Hall was the start of intensive activity by Wolfe’s office, which resulted in the city tentatively agreeing to settlement terms that were more favorable to Singh than had previously been offered. The city and Singh were close to finalizing their settlement when Singh was arrested as part of the Long Island corruption investigation.

Eric F. Phillips, de Blasio’s press secretary, characterized the allegations as “never proven because they are not true.”

“They are old news that’s been widely reported and reviewed extensively by federal prosecutors before they closed their investigation. We make decisions on the merits. Period,” Phillips said.

Spokesmen for the two U.S. attorneys’ offices declined to comment. Singh, who owed the city millions of dollars in back rent and charges for the rebuilding of a nearby pier, had been involved in a long-running dispute with the city over his lease. The negotiations in 2015 were to settle those disputes, which he hoped would lead to a renewal of the lease.

De Blasio had intervened on behalf of Singh on various occasions. He attended a meeting with Administrative Services Department officials and Singh in 2011, when he was still public advocate; after de Blasio was elected mayor, he telephoned the head of the agency to ask her to help Singh and ordered a top city official to monitor the negotiations.

The court documents said that Singh’s contributions were made “in exchange for efforts by Official #2 and other city officials” that benefited Singh.

De Blasio has said that Singh got the same treatment that any other constituent would have received and that he was not influenced by the donations.

Singh’s lawyer, Anthony M. La Pinta, declined to comment.

The transcript of Singh’s guilty plea was unsealed on Tuesday in connection with the trial of one of the Long Island officials, Edward P. Mangano. Singh is expected to be an important witness in that case.