Congressmember Michael Grimm, a representative for Staten Island and portions of Brooklyn since 2011, plead guilty to one felony count of tax evasion in Brooklyn Federal Court on Tuesday, December 23.
When asked outside of court if he planned to resign his seat, Grimm reportedly said no.
Charged in a 20-count federal indictment in April,—including multiple counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, perjury, one count of conspiring to defraud the United States, one count of impeding the Internal Revenue Service, one count of health care fraud, one count of engaging in a pattern or practice of hiring and continuing to employ unauthorized aliens, and one count of obstructing an official proceeding — the Congressman’s alleged crimes arise from a business he owned called Healthalicious, a small fast food eatery in Manhattan.
Federal officials also alleged that Grimm under-reported income at the restaurant by more than $1 million, and paid employees hundreds of thousands of dollars in wages “off the books.”
Federal investigators spent more than two years looking into a variety of Grimm’s activities, including his “campaign finances, the potential mob ties of one of his business associates and the illegal doings of another,” according to the New York Times.
Grimm was elected to a third term in November, winning over Democratic candidate Domenic Recchia, despite having been indicted on the federal charges.
Representatives for Grimm did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
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