Over the past three weeks, media outlets across the Albany, Saratoga, Capital District and Upper Hudson Valley regions of Upstate New York have been increasingly drawing attention to the ongoing FBI probe of Halfmoon, New York Republican elected officials, including State Senator Kathy Marchione and the significant amount of cash they have received over the years from wealthy residential developer Bruce Tanski, who was recently arrested and is now under probable indictment for concealing campaign contributions through business associates to Halfmoon Republican officials.
Over the past year, the FBI has inquired into Marchione's sponsorship of legislation to legalize mixed-martial arts fighting in New York State, an initiative long favored by Tanski, as well as a suspicious land swap she and her husband made in 2006 with a local builder adjacent to their primary residence in Halfmoon, New York.
From The Albany Times Union, September 24, 2014:
"The political season opened with a bang Wednesday in Halfmoon, where Democrats demanded Republicans cut ties with a recently indicted developer and return a small fortune in campaign contributions they received from him."
"Bruce Tanski and his businesses contributed at least $138,347 to Republican campaigns in Halfmoon and Saratoga County since 2008, including $126,708 to state Sen. Kathleen Marchione, R-Halfmoon, the former county clerk, according to campaign filings released by Democrats Wednesday. Following a two-year investigation by the FBI and state attorney general's office, Tanski was arrested Aug. 22 and accused of using business associates to conceal $6,000 in donations to a former town supervisor. Tanski was indicted by the state attorney general on eight counts of election crimes, including a felony."
From the
Hudson Register-Star, September 27, 2014:
"HUDSON — State Sen. Kathy Marchione, R,C,I-Half Moon, has rejected a challenge from her Democratic opponent, Brian Howard, and other Democratic candidates, to return $126,707.98 in contributions from Clifton Park developer Bruce Tanski and to skip a Sunday fundraising breakfast to be held at Tanski’s Fairways of Halfmoon golf course."
"On Aug. 22, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that Tanski had been arrested and indicted, along with two co-defendants, for an alleged scheme to circumvent campaign finance laws. Tanski is facing felony and misdemeanor charges in connection with evading campaign contribution limits."
"In March 2013, the Register-Star reported that Tanski and his various limited liability corporations had donated $95,645 to the Marchione campaign. The individual limit for that race was $10,000 for the general election and $6,500 for the primary."
"Since an LLC is treated as an individual for contribution purposes, each LLC was allowed to give $16,500 to that race."
"Since then, Tanski has made more contributions to Marchione’s campaign to bring the total up to $126,707."
"While the Wormuth campaign was on a smaller scale, the legal outcomes have been more serious."
"Although there were six separate contained donations to the Wormuth campaign, two of which were from DiNova and Fogarty, a source from the ongoing state investigation could not reveal the names of the other four donors. When asked whether Marchione was under investigation, the source said they could not comment."
"The biggest charge Tanski faces is false filing of campaign documentation, under an inaccurate name, a Class E felony. He is also charged with six Class A misdemeanor counts of violating election law, and one Class A misdemeanor county of violating the campaign limits established by election law."