ROTTEN TO THE CORE: Jimmy Meng, at court yesterday, will be eating prison food for a while because of his fruit-basket bribery scam. (
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What a basket case!
Former Queens Assemblyman Jimmy Meng admitted yesterday he tried to convince a businessman under investigation for fraud that all the man had to do to make the case go away was deposit $80,000 in a basket of fruit.
Meng — the first Asian-American elected to the state Legislature — told his pal Eric Hu he’d then send someone to collect the basket and use the money to bribe Manhattan prosecutors.
But the 69-year-old former politician confessed to Brooklyn federal Judge Alleyne Ross he never planned to contact anyone in Manhattan — and the bizarre fruit ploy was just an attempt to squeeze cash out of Hu.
“I intended to keep the money,” said Meng, who faces up to 18 months in prison after confessing to wire fraud in a plea deal.
Ross asked the former Flushing lawmaker if it was true that he “had never been in touch with the district attorney and had fabricated the bribery scheme.’’
“Basically, all of that was false?” Ross asked Meng.
“Yes,” he answered.
“I intended to keep the money,” Meng told the judge.
The feds said Meng, who represented Flushing from 2005 to 2006, was lying about having influence with any prosecutors. Federal authorities eventually got wind of Meng’s scam and convinced Hu to become an informant.
He started wearing a wire and recorded conversations with Meng about the bribery scheme.
On Dec. 19, 2011, Meng told Hu that three Manhattan prosecutors were assigned to Hu’s case and asked for $20,000 for each of them, the taped conversation shows. In return, Meng said, Hu would get only a year in prison.
His friend wouldn’t bite — so Meng offered a $120,000 deal for no jail time, the recordings show.
Then, in a Jan. 3 phone conversation, Meng directed Hu to stuff $80,000 into the basket of fruit.
“You can also pack a bag of fruit,’’ he said, according to the taped conversation.
“Put in there $80,000 . . . You just pack up some fruits and place some money in there.’’
In late July, Hu drove to Meng’s lumberyard in Queens carrying a fruit basket that also contained several thousand dollars, prosecutors said.
Meng took it and was arrested by the FBI.
The amount of money in the basket was not revealed.
Defense lawyer Todd Greenberg said after the hearing that the actions of Meng, who will be sentenced in March, were uncharacteristic.
“This case involves a lapse of judgment in a very decent person,” Greenberg said.
Meanwhile, Meng’s problems with the law have not hurt his daughter Grace’s political career.
She was elected to Congress earlier this month, despite the her father’s scandal.
During the campaign, she distance herself from him, insisting she was “independent of my father.’’
Hu’s troubles with the law stemmed in part from a fraudulent application he made in 2007 for a Citibank credit card using the false name of Jiping Shan, officials said. He still faces tax-fraud charges in Manhattan.
Hu allegedly used that credit card to make a wide range of purchases — including supplies for his construction firm — running up $16,500 in charges he failed to repay to the bank.
Over the summer, Hu pleaded guilty to federal bank-fraud charges and is awaiting sentencing, officials said.