Feds Focus on South Queens: Rep. Meeks Talks

Politics, like life, is all about relationships....and federal prosecutors are looking at the relationship between three, political heavy hitters in southeastern Queens...and their real estate interests.

U.S. Representative Gregory Meeks, who replaced the prominent Rev. Floyd Flake in Congress in the late 90's, is the only one talking publicly about a case that's also ensnared State Senator, Malcolm Smith, the temporary President of the State Senate in Albany.

PIX 11 News asked Congressman Meeks whether he ever benefitted financially from the New Direction Local Development Corporation, which received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations and funding over the last decade. "Not at all! Not at all," Meeks told us. "Or any organization! I won't do that. It's unethical."

The Daily News recently reported that Meeks' large home--located on a big piece of property between two, city blocks in Jamaica, Queens--was being looked at by federal prosecutors.
Records relating to Rev. Floyd Flake's housing network, subsidized by federal money, have reportedly been subpoenaed. And documents from the district office of Senator Malcolm Smith, dating back ten years, have reportedly been requested, as well. Senator Smith has
hired top "legal gun" Gerald Shargel to represent him. Shargel told Pix 11 News: "There's not a piece of paper which would implicate Senator Smith in any wrongdoing. Senator Smith has done absolutely nothing wrong. He has represented his constituency in a perfectly appropriate, competent, and stellar way."

Pix 11 News tried to get a meeting with Rev. Floyd Flake at his large cathedral in Queens, but our call was not returned. Back in 1991, a federal judge threw out corruption charges against Flake, then a U.S. Congressman, ruling prosecutors had not proven their case.

Mary Murphy
4/13/10