Prosecutors said Melvin E. Lowe stole $100,000 from the New York Democratic Senate Campaign Committee in an invoicing scheme with State Senator John L. Sampson.
The former consultant, Melvin E. Lowe, 53, of Manhattan, wasconvicted in September of charges including conspiracy, wire fraud and filing false tax returns.
He was hired as a consultant by the committee in 2009 after Democrats won control of the Senate, and Mr. Sampson became his party’s conference leader. Prosecutors said Mr. Lowe filed a fake invoice for a printing company in New Jersey to receive $100,000 from the committee in 2010, then took $75,000 for himself. They said Mr. Lowe used the money to pay for renovations to a house he owns in Georgia.
“Melvin Lowe’s corrupt actions were another example of a political figure in New York State putting his own personal greed ahead of the public’s trust,” Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. “I hope today’s sentence will send yet another powerful signal to any public official who questions the resolve of this office to root out corruption.”
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