Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are turning a blind eye to “the largest health and insurance fraud in New York” to protect a key witness in the case against former State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, an attorney for the disgraced Nassau County Republican said Tuesday.
Skelos faces retrial alongside his son, Adam, beginning on June 18. Dean Skelos is accused of strong-arming companies with business before the state into giving his son cushy consulting work and a no-show job.
One witness in the retrial, Anthony Bonomo, is expected to testify that he gave Adam Skelos a no-show job in January 2013 at the Physicians Reciprocal Insurers in exchange for Dean’s support of legislation allowing the company to continue operating in the red.
Bonomo, 60, has since been ousted from his role as CEO of the medical malpractice insurance firm — and Dean Skelos’ attorney Robert Gage said prosecutors are ignoring the reasons why.
Gage, citing investigations by the Department of Financial Services and the company itself, said Bonomo had engaged in a “massive family fraud” that included a $900,000 kickback.
Bonomo has not been criminally charged. If he were, it would violate the terms of his cooperation agreement in the Skelos case, Gage said.
“They have a duty to investigate a crime,” Gage said. “They appear to be circling the wagons to protect the investigation.”
He said the investigations into Bonomo pointed to “the largest health and insurance fraud in New York.”
Gage asked Judge Kimba Wood to order prosecutors turn over more information about Bonomo and PRI.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Zolkind said prosecutors took their responsibility to investigate any allegation against a government witness seriously.
Bonomo, a wealthy, politically connected former head of the New York Racing Association, is co-owner of the most recent winner of the Kentucky Derby.
Efforts to reach Bonomo were unsuccessful.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals tossed the guilty verdicts against the Skeloses last September due to a Supreme Court decision impacting public corruption cases.
