LI CRIME BRIEFS

GLEN COVE/Man guilty in heists worth $2.3M

A Glen Cove man pleaded guilty Thursday to grand larceny charges and admitted he stole a total of $2.3 million from 19 condominiums and coops he managed, the Manhattan district attorney's office said in a news release.

Richard Bassik, 67, manager of Downtown Properties, Inc., admitted that between January 2005 to August 2009, he stole from clients and used the money to pay his personal expenses, including his credit card bills and rent for his office.

"Richard Bassik stole his client's money to bankroll a lavish lifestyle that included trips to the Caribbean and visits to the Ritz Carlton Hotel," District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. said in the release.

Bassik, of Glen Cove, and his attorney, Michael Soshnick, could not be reached last night for comment.

Bassik pleaded guilty to seven counts of second-degree larceny, six counts of third-degree grand larceny and one count of first-degree scheme to defraud. He is scheduled to be sentence on Oct. 12. - CHAU LAM

MANHATTAN/Witness in jeopardy for terror trial

A key witness in the upcoming al-Qaida embassy bombing trial of Ahmed Ghailani may have made conflicting statements about the accused terrorist's role in the attack on U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998, according to testimony at a hearing Thursday in federal court in Manhattan.

The witness, Tanzanian taxi driver Hussein Abebe, allegedly sold dynamite to Ghailani that was used in the attacks. But federal agents only learned Abebe's identity through coercive CIA questioning of Ghailani after his capture in 2004. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan is considering whether to ban Abebe as a witness at trial because of the interrogation.

Defense lawyers yesterday disclosed that FBI reports indicate that Abebe at one time blamed a middleman named "Rashid" - and not Ghailani - for deceiving him into believing the explosives were for mining. Abebe said the reports were wrong, but Kaplan said they raised questions about his credibility.

Abebe says that he cooperated willingly against Ghailani and felt no pressure from authorities when he was arrested in 2006, after Ghailani identified him. Prosecutors - who call him a "giant witness" for their case - say his willingness to testify overrides the illegal interrogation, but Kaplan said he wasn't sure how he'll rule.

Jury selection in the case begins next week.

- John Riley