7/14/2012
By Ivan Pereira
A former Queens assemblyman was busted Tuesday by the FBI for allegedly taking an $80,000 bribe — delivered to him in fruit basket in a Queens lumber yard.
Jimmy Meng, the first Asian elected to statewide office in New York, was arrested by federal agents who caught him allegedly taking the cash from one of their informants.
Federal investigators say the 68-year-old told the informant — who was being prosecuted for tax crimes — he’d make the case go away with the $80,000 payoff.
Investigators say he was going to pocket the money for himself.
“Jimmy Meng sought to be a power broker in the halls of justice. But the influence he sought to peddle was corrupt and his power was illusory,” U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement.
Meng was charged with wire fraud in Brooklyn federal court Tuesday and faces 20 years in federal prison if convicted, the U.S. attorney said.
His daughter Grace, who is running for congress and currently holds his Assembly seat, said she had no knowledge of her father’s alleged actions.
“I am independent of my father — always have been, always will be,” she said in a statement.
