News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Mar. 8, 2013: Queens district leader and two-time candidate for the City Council, Guyana-born attorney, Albert Baldeo, has entered a plea of not-guilty during his recent arraignment.
At the March 1st arraignment before Judge Paul A. Crotty, Baldeo waived the public reading of the indictment and entered a plea of not guilty.
Baldeo was last October slapped with conspiracy to commit mail fraud, attempted mail fraud, conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and obstruction of justice charges, stemming from what prosecutors said were campaign-finance improprieties.
They claim he used phantom donors to funnel illegal campaign contributions to his unsuccessful 2010 campaign for the Council as part of a fraudulent effort to increase the amount of matching funds he would have been eligible for from city.
But irregularities were uncovered in an audit by the New York City Campaign Finance Board, which passed the information along to the authorities, and no matching funds were ultimately provided to the campaign.
According to the government, Baldeo fabricated contributions to his campaign to receive $6 in matching funds for every $1 he reportedly raised.
Baldeo appeared with his Attorney Henry E. Mazurek at the arraignment. A pretrial conference is scheduled for April 19th.
