NEW YORK (CMC) – United States federal prosecutors have charged a powerful Caribbean American legislator with embezzlement.

New York State senator, John L Sampson, who represents the largely Caribbean 19th Senatorial District in Brooklyn, had been charged with stealing funds from the sale of foreclosed properties and using the money to help finance his race for Brooklyn district attorney.

Sampson, a lawyer and a former leader of New York State’s Democratic caucus, is currently the ranking Democrat on the State Senate Judiciary Committee as well as the Senate Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents said they took Sampson into custody on Monday and federal prosecutors have also accused him of seeking information from an employee of the United States Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn about whether he was under criminal investigation and for the names of any potential witnesses who could be used to testify against him.

In the 24-page indictment, federal prosecutors accused Sampson of embezzling about US$440,000 in funds involving the sale of foreclosed properties that he kept for himself instead of returning to court officials in Brooklyn. Sampson was serving as a referee in the sale of the properties, prosecutors said.

They charged that he used part of the money that he steered to himself to finance an unsuccessful campaign in 2005 to be elected the district attorney in Brooklyn.

“For years, Senator John Sampson abused his position of public trust to steal from New Yorkers suffering from home foreclosure and from the very county he was elected to represent,” said Loretta E. Lynch, the United States attorney in Brooklyn.

“But the former senate ethics leader didn’t stop there. Senator Sampson allegedly stole that money to fund his own ambition to become Brooklyn’s top prosecutor,” she said in a statement.

Lynn said the criminal charges against Sampson undermines the public trust in their elected representatives and “causes people to become more cynical”.

She said the underlying ethos behind Sampson’s alleged illegal conduct was selfishness.

“The fact that he was trying to become the top state prosecutor in this borough shows the extreme arrogance and hubris,” she said, adding “it’s all about him”.

In their investigation, FBI agents recorded Sampson saying he would track down an informant implicating an associate and “take them out”.

Sampson’s arrest adds yet another name to the notorious list of New York politicians brought down in recent weeks by US federal prosecutors.

According to Monday’s indictment, after embezzling the funds, Sampson, fearing that he would get caught, allegedly pressured Queens businessman, Guyanese-born Edul Ahmad, to “loan” him US$188,000 to cover his track.

Ahmad, a real estate broker, was charged by federal prosecutors and pleaded guilty to committing a “massive mortgage fraud” and the FBI said he immediately began cooperating with agents.

The FBI said Sampson, worried that Ahmad would reveal details of the secret loan, began offering to help Ahmad find witnesses the federal government was using against him.

Federal prosecutors also charged that Sampson is ensnared in a bribery scandal involving a former colleague.