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Embattled state Assemblyman William Boyland Jr., already the target of a federal corruption prosecution, allegedly falsified documents to reel in more than $67,000 in phony travel reimbursements, according to a bombshell report.
The state Comptroller’s Office concluded that Boyland, who will go on trial to face federal bribery charges this year, lied about being in Albany on more than 600 claims to collect lodging, food and mileage reimbursements.
“You represented on travel vouchers that you were in Albany for 323 days where the evidence shows that you were, in fact, in locations far from Albany,” the report states, according to the Albany Times Union, which obtained a copy.
Last year, The Post reported that Boyland claimed $17,606 in taxpayer-financed per diem payments — on top of his legislative salary — for attending legislative sessions and for trips outside his district.
His per diem claims were more than those submitted by 131 of the Assembly’s 150 members, state records show.
Boyland also missed 280 votes last year, more than all but four lawmakers.
During most of the days he claimed to be working in Albany, the Brooklyn Democrat was actually still in New York City, the report stated.
On other occasions when he claimed to be in the state capital, he was really in the Hamptons, Atlantic City, NJ, North Carolina, Maryland or his alma mater of Virginia State University.
The report examined Boyland’s travel and per diem claims for a five-year period starting in January 2007 and found questionable claims on 609 of the 975 days he submitted for reimbursement.
Albany County District Attorney David Soares had state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli conduct 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, officials said.
Lawmakers can collect $165 per night when they stay in the capital on official business.
DiNapoli’s office compared Boyland’s claims with his E-ZPass toll records, ATM withdrawals, his Assembly attendance and voting records and the use of his state ID card at the Capitol complex.
“Our examination found a lack of sufficient, appropriate evidence to support you were entitled to receive $67,497 in mileage and per diem expenses,” the report stated.
“We identified a pattern where you were in Albany for some period, but claimed to arrive earlier and/or leave later than records support, thus increasing or ‘padding’ reimbursement requests,” it concluded.
Boyland, through his lawyer Michael Bachrach, responded that he “would not provide any information as a response could incriminate [him] in future criminal proceedings.”
Boyland, who won re-election to a sixth term last November for a seat that had been held by his father, 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.
The trial is scheduled for July.
Boyland 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.