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ALBANY — The taxpayer spigot is off for embattled Assemblyman William Boyland Jr.
State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is withholding reimbursements to his fellow Democrat for travel and “per diem” payments until Boyland repays the state $67,497 for what the comptroller calls unsubstantiated previous claims.
Boyland, facing trial in July on federal bribery charges, told the Comptroller’s Office on Feb. 1 he would provide “documentation justifying all or some” of the previous travel payments but has failed to do so, Deputy Comptroller Margaret Becker said in a letter to the Brooklyn lawmaker released yesterday.
She said the comptroller first asked for the documentation backing up his expense claims on Sept. 14.
DiNapoli’s findings were included in a report, dated Dec. 12, that details Boyland’s claims for travel expenses to Albany, which include 323 days that the comptroller said the Brooklyn lawmaker wasn’t in the capital.
The report cited another 182 days where there was “no evidence” Boyland was in Albany and another 104 when he improperly claimed the full $165 per diem for an overnight stay in Albany.
Lawmakers must document travel expenses, but to do so, they only to have sign a form testifying that their per diem claims are legitimate.
The comptroller’s report said Boyland, through his lawyer, wouldn’t provide information to DiNapoli’s staff because “a response could incriminate [him] in future court proceedings.”
DiNapoli has sent his findings to Albany County District Attorney David Soares, who requested the review after Boyland was charged with arranging bribes from undercover FBI agents in Manhattan and Atlantic City on days he claimed to be in Albany on legislative business.
Boyland didn’t return calls, and his most recent attorney, Michael Bachrach, said he’s no longer representing the lawmaker.
Soares’ office said the DA won’t comment on DiNapoli’s findings before his own probe is done.
DiNapoli’s investigators said they relied on E-ZPass, state ID card, bank, court and Assembly- attendance records.
Auditors said Boyland was in the city on 85 percent of the days he claimed to be in Albany, including three days in court and four meeting with federal investigators.
On other days, he was in North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia and the Hamptons.
Boyland, who won re-election to a sixth two-year term last November for a seat his father once held, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he solicited cash from FBI agents posing as real-estate developers and carnival promoters in the city.
He was acquitted in November 2011 in Manhattan federal court of separate charges that he conspired to collect $175,000 in bribes to help a hospital network in Queens and Brooklyn.
Prosecutors allege that he solicited bribes from the FBI agents posing as developers to pay legal fees from his first case.