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Disgraced former Long Island politician Dean Skelos, who contracted novel coronavirus (COVID-19) while serving time in prison, is now likely to be released from prison to serve home confinement.
Skelos, 72, the former New York State Majority Leader, was sentenced to 51 months in prison in 2018 on corruption charges after accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bribes while he was in office.
It has been an up-and-down ride for Skelos, who was initially scheduled to be released from prison, then had that offer rescinded. It now appears that he is heading back to home confinement to serve out the rest of his prison term.
Skelos has been in prison for approximately 18 of his 51-month sentence at the Otisville federal prison in Orange County.
“Representatives of the Bureau of Prisons have informed the government that Dean Skelos has been approved for home confinement and will be released on or before April 30, 2020,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss wrote in a letter to Judge Kimba Wood.
Skelos has been quarantined in prison since testing positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, April 8.
Skelos was convicted in 2018 for using his political clout to steer jobs and curry favor for his son Adam. He was initially convicted of the same charges in 2015, but that conviction was later overturned.
In total, Dean Skelos obtained more than $300,000 in payments through “persistent and repeated pressure applied to senior executives of three different companies that needed legislation passed in the New York State Senate and other official actions from Dean Skelos,” prosecutors said.
The schemes included the Glenwood Management Corp. in Manhattan, which paid more than $20,000 upfront and $4,000 monthly to the younger Skelos.
In exchange, they sought real estate tax abatements and real estate legislation favorable to them. At the same time, two other companies were paying thousands for “consulting contracts” in exchange for favors.
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