Lawmaker-turned-lobbyist Nick Spano can keep influencing his former colleagues, despite today’s guilty plea on tax evasion and his pending status as a convicted felon.

It’s because there’s no provision in the state’s lobbying law that bars people with a criminal background from greasing the wheels of legislation and policy.

“I don’t see anything in there that when he pays his debt to society that he can’t go back and lobby,” said Russ Haven of NYPIRG. “It’s up to the market if he can go back and lobby.”

There is also no stipulation in today’s plea agreement that would bar Spano from continuing his lucrative lobbying business, Empire Strategic Planning.

At the same time, New York’s ethics laws are silent on the matter.

“There’s no ethical component, prospective kind of laws for how lobbyists can conduct themselves,” Haven said.

Spano may still receive up to three years in prison and must pay a fine plus restitution for the underrpeorted income.

The popular and high-powered influencer entered a guilty plea this morning in federal court on one count of tax evasion after he failed to reported $52,000 in income he received for his side business as a “consultant” for a White Plains insurance company. Spano was receiving fixed monthly payments from the company over a 15 year period.

In a demonstration of how things work in Albany, the company was a broker for the Office of General Services at the time and received a 2 percent commission on all insurance policies written for properties and facilities OGS managed.

According to the criminal complaint from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Spano hid the payments as rental expenses from 2000 through 2008, but stopped receiving money after OGS dumped the insurance company (again, this is how things work).

Spano, a Yonkers Republican, left the Legislature in 2007 after losing to Democrat Andrea Stewart-Cousins.

He quickly established the lobbying firm Empire Stragetic Planning and after the two year grace period ended, he picked up clients that include the Yonkers Raceway, Yonkers Public Schools, Genting New York, Cable Telecommunications Systems of New York, which includes providers Cablevision and YNN parent company Time Warner Cable.

Spano is also the lobbyist for Rep. Eliot Engel’s campaign, which retained his services in order to provide for favorable redistricted lines.

Spano crossed party lines and helped raise money for Andrew Cuomo’s gubernatorial campaign, as did many Republicans. Cuomo would later travel to Yonkers and endorse Spano’s younger brother, Mike Spano, a Republican-turned-Democrat, for mayor.

The plea agreement and complaint are after the jump.

Spano Info (2)

Spano PleaAgreement

Share|