Dean Skelos aide set up NY meeting with AbTech Industries, ex-official testifies

A top Senate aide to former majority leader Dean Skelos set up a meeting on fracking with the state Department of Health for AbTech Industries without disclosing the company was paying Skelos’ son, Adam, $10,000 a month, a former state health official testified Wednesday at the Skelos corruption trial.

James Clancy, a deputy commissioner in 2014, said the request triggered alarms and that he alerted aides to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo because it came from Elizabeth Garvey, counsel to the Senate Republican majority, just as the administration considered a policy shift to allow fracking, a hot-button environmental issue.

Clancy said AbTech was finally allowed to meet with an official involved in the fracking review when Garvey, who worked for Skelos, provided assurances that AbTech wanted to talk about the technical ability of its antipollution sponges to clean fracking wastewater and not lobby on the policy issue.

But when prosecutor Rahul Mukhi asked if AbTech, an Arizona environmental technology company, Garvey or Dean Skelos ever disclosed that Adam Skelos was on the payroll, Clancy responded, “There was no discussion of that.”

Dean Skelos, 67, and Adam Skelos, 33, both of Rockville Centre, are charged in Manhattan federal court with using the senator’s clout to get the younger Skelos $20,000 from a developer and jobs with a Roslyn malpractice insurer and AbTech.

They also allegedly used influence to try to generate commissions for Adam Skelos by helping AbTech with steps that included pressuring Nassau County to approve a $12 million contract and pushing for state approval of fracking. Adam Skelos was behind the effort to get the health department meeting, the government says.

Earlier Wednesday, Adam Skelos’ former AbTech supervisor, Bjornulf White, finished more than two full days of testimony that included introduction of more than two dozen potentially incriminating recorded conversations he made as a cooperating government witness. Many of recorded conversations were between White and Adam Skelos.

Prosecutors say one key element of their case is efforts the Skeloses made to conceal their dealings, including using so-called burner phones. But on cross-examination, defense lawyers suggested White manipulated Adam into providing the number of a “safe” cellphone for their discussions.

White conceded he was directed by federal investigators to bring the subject up during a meeting with Adam Skelos at a Manhattan hotel bar. White said he waited until almost the end of a three-hour meeting, after Adam Skelos had downed two or three drinks.

“You waited two hours and 54 minutes to find that out?” defense attorney Christopher Coniff asked, his voice rising.

“Yes,” White replied.

The government expects to rest its case early next week. Prosecutor Rahul Mukhi complained to U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood Wednesday that the defense has provided a list of 29 possible witnesses it may call, but it didn’t seem very realistic.

One of the names, Mukhi noted, was former Suffolk County state Sen. Owen Johnson. Johnson died in December 2014.

Robert Gage, Dean Skelos’ lawyer, later apologized. “We included a name we shouldn’t have,” he told the judge. “Occasionally, mistakes do happen.”