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He was John Sampson’s $400,000 man.
Melvin Lowe, a former top political aide to the indicted state senator, is being eyed by federal prosecutors as part of a mushrooming probe.
Lowe was among the eight Democratic elected officials and staffers secretly taped by ex-state Sen. Shirley Huntley, who was sentenced last week to one year imprisonment for her own fraud conviction. Huntley wore a wire in a bid for a reduced sentence.
The fact that the feds directed Huntley to try to tape Lowe — whom Sampson brought in as his political guru during his brief but stormy tenure as the Senate leader — had state capital insiders buzzing that more bombshells could drop in the Albany corruption investigation.
Lowe made a tidy sum during his one-year tenure. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee paid his two firms — G&L consulting and Prestige Strategic Communications — a combined $250,000 in 2009-10.
Around the same time, Sampson paid Lowe an additional $150,000 from his personal campaign committee — even though the Brooklyn pol did not face a tough re-election fight.
Senate Democratic insiders snickered that Lowe was being overpaid and wondered what he actually did for the money.
“There was shock that Lowe was getting paid through two different companies. The whole thing was highly irregular and fishy,” said one Senate source.
Another source said Lowe requested payments above the monthly retainer spelled out in his contract — and Sampson had to personally sign off on them.
“The safeguards were lax,” the insider said. “On a day-to-day basis, I couldn’t tell you what Melvin did. I know he had a close relationship with the unions.
“There was a lot of resentment at what he was getting paid. He was like a guy in the shadows.”
Sampson brought Lowe in after a coup that toppled Malcolm Smith as the Senate majority leader. Senate Dems also hired Lowe’s son, Melvin Lowe Jr., as a regional coordinator in Brooklyn. Now, both Sampson and Smith are fighting federal indictments. Sampson was charged with embezzling $440,000 from foreclosure escrow accounts he managed as well as witness and evidence tampering.
Dem Smith is charged with attempting to bribe his way onto the GOP mayoral ballot. He and Sampson have pleaded not guilty.
Lowe did not return calls for comment.
Lowe — who worked as a lobbyist for Forest City Ratner — was also subpoenaed as part of the federal probe of the company’s Ridge Hill development in Yonkers.
The Harlemite is a known political operative who worked on Andrew Cuomo’s unsuccessful 2002 campaign for governor and is friendly with Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.
Cuomo’s 2002 campaign paid Lowe’s firm $75,000.
Lowe also worked for East Side Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV and former state Comptroller Carl McCall.