Councilman Wills Arrested Years Ago AND?

Why is the AG Going After A Corrupt Charity First Exposed in 2010? Ruben Wills De

Authorities to probe charity tied to Assemblywoman Cook(NYP) New York’s attorney general is investigating a charity tied to Queens Assemblywoman Vivian Cook, The Post has learned.  The AG’s Office dispatched a team of investigators last week to a parking lot owned by the Rockaway Boulevard Local Development Corp., a source familiar with the investigation told The Post. “I don’t know nothing about the attorney general,” Cook toThe Post last week. The probe comes a week after The Post revealed that the defunct charity, founded by Cook in 1979, is collecting thousands from the rental of the once-empty and derelict lot — purchased with millions in public funds — to construction companies for vehicle storage. Who is pocketing the rental money remains a mystery.
Cook’s charity shut down in 2010 after The Post exposed its wasteful spending.

Judge Does Not Buy CM Wills Scam Witness Sick Daughter Excuse, Warrant Issued for His Arrest 

Judge doesn’t buy ‘scam’ witness’ sick daughter excuse (NYP) The Queens man who bolted from court Tuesday before he could enter a guilty plea expected to implicate City Councilman Ruben Wills in a corruption scheme got an earful Wednesday from an angry judge who didn’t take long to throw him in jail. Jelani Mills didn’t do himself any favors with his lame excuse, either, telling Judge Barry Kron that he’d skipped out because his daughter wasn’t feeling well. “He has a 9-year-old daughter and his daughter had an illness at school,” Mills’ attorney Scott Davis told the judge. “His wife is a schoolteacher who was unable to [help].” But Kron, who issued a fugitive warrant for Mills after he ducked out of court around noon Tuesday, wasn’t buying it. According to two sources, Wills is sick in a hospital and is not expected to return to the City Council for at least two weeks. He did not return calls Wednesday.

Indicted CM Wills Key Witness Disappears and the Media Does Not Ask the Councilman the Speaker WTF? 

A man expected to implicate Queens City Councilman Ruben Wills on corruption charges Tuesday bolted from the courthouse just before proceedings started, and the judge issued an arrest warrant for him

Co-defendant in corrupt councilman case goes missing from court (NYP) A Queens man who was expected to implicate a sitting city councilman on corruption charges Tuesday bolted the courthouse just before the proceeding started — leaving his lawyer in the lurch and the judge fuming. Justice Barry Kron issued an arrest warrant for Jelani Mills, who was in court to plead guilty to crimes that involved his co-defendant, Queens Councilman Ruben Wills, but fled sometime after noon. His blindsided attorney, Scott Davis, had no explanation for Kron on why Mills was a no-show when the case was called in Queens Supreme Court. “It was my understanding that the district attorney is prepared to resolve this case — and it’s not ­going to be resolved,” Kron said, referring to the charges brought by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Mills, 29, and Wills, 44, were charged in scams in which theyallegedly fleeced tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars through nonprofits. In two indictments brought over the past two years, Wills and Mills were charged with a dozen counts that include fraud, grand larceny and falsifying business records. They’re accused of defrauding the city Campaign Finance Board by accepting public funds to pay a shell company, Micro Targeting, purportedly to provide campaign-related services for Wills’ losing 2009 race for City Council. Mills allegedly filed the paperwork creating the company and billed Wills’ campaign $11,500 for work that was never performed. nstead, some of the funds allegedly were funneled to a shady nonprofit, New York 4 Life, that was founded by Wills. Wills also is charged with stealing more than $30,000 in other state taxpayer money from New York 4 Life — and using some of the cash for shopping sprees at Macy’s, Nordstrom’s and Century 21 that included the purchase of a $750 Louis Vuitton handbag. Wills received the state funding through a pork-barrel grant obtained by ex-Queens state Sen. Shirley Huntley, who was later sentenced to prison in a separate case of public corruption. Wills had served as Huntley’s chief of staff.

Wills Who Was Indicted By the AG Over A Year Ago is Still Doing Pay to Play Deal With His Lobbyists Campaign Manager

TRASHY POL: Indicted Queens Councilman slams proposal that hurts campaign donor (NYDN) An indicted Queens pol with the worst attendance record on the City Council showed up to hearings of a committee he doesn’t sit on to blast proposals that threaten to hurt a campaign donor. Councilman Ruben Wills — a Democrat who has received $3,000 from donors tied to Royal Waste and Regal Recycling — slammed a commercial trash handling proposal that would carve the city into zones, and assign each area to one chosen waste company, at a sanitation committee hearing April 29. Wills has received $3,000 from owners, managers and family members of Royal and Regal, which runs a complex of waste transfer and recycling facilities in southeast Queens outside his district. He also got $750 from the companies directly — which had to be returned because corporate contributions are banned under city rules.  Last year, he had the worst attendance rate of anyone on the 51 member Council — blowing off 27% of the meetings he was supposed to attend.

Wills is facing a slew of corruption charges — including allegations he stole public campaign funds and used them on Louis Vuitton, Nordstrom and other personal purchases; and that he took a state member item for a sham charity but pocketed most of it. A separate indictment this year charged him with filing false statements with the Conflicts of Interest Board. A political consulting firm formerly employed by Wills, Connective Strategies, has been paid $6,000 by Regal to lobby the Council against that bill. “There is no conflict,” said Connective President Tyquana Henderson, who said she has not lobbied Wills on the matter. Lobbyists Henderson Was Wills Campaign Manager  Mr. Wills was arrested as part of a separate case in May and charged in a 12-count indictment with using tens of thousands of dollars in campaign and taxpayer money to enrich himself, buying items such as a $750 Louis Vuitton handbag, authorities said. Candidates Represented by Henderson's Connective Strategies

Lobbyists Henderson Was Wills Campaign Manager 

The arrest of Queens Councilman Ruben Wills is a reality check for those who tout public financing of campaigns as the key to cleaning up Albany. Welcome to the notoriously sleazy Legislature in Albany, where gaming the campaign finance laws is an art form. A see-no-evil Board of Elections, which is party-controlled and paralyzed in the face of runaway lawbreaking. Good money after bad  (NYDN) The arrest of Ruben Wills should give public campaign finance enthusiasts pause. During his first, failed run for the City Council in 2009, Wills collected $139,818 in public money from the CFB — 79% of his total budget. According to the indictment from Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Wills then secretly funneled $11,500 of his campaign funds to a nonprofit group he controlled, NY4Life, and glommed the money for strictly personal expenses — such as buying a $750 Louis Vuitton handbag. 

Wills Indicted for A Not-For-Profit Scam Was An Aide for Ex-Senator Huntley Convicted of Another Not-For-Profit Scam

Wills personally submitted a voucher with the state Office of Children and Family Services on behalf of the group in 2010. But Wills declined to answer questions and invoked his Fifth Amendment rights when he was asked about the missing funds by investigators last year. Wills, a former aide to ex-state Sen. Shirley Huntley, who was convicted in another not-for-profit scam.  The councilman is also being probe for steering funds to another non profit group, the Young Leaders Institute. Wills and a relative on his payroll, Jelani Mills, were arrested and being processed at the 112th Pct. in Forest Hills.* New York City Councilman Ruben Wills Charged in Fraud ... (May 7, 2014) * City Councilman Pleads Guilty to 1996 Misdemeanor * Indicted NYC Councilman Ruben Wills has worst attendance record among current members, records show:(NYDN) * Wills accuses AG of bias over use of image in campaign ad(NYP) State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is being accused of unfairly smearing an indicted Queens lawmaker by including him in a TV campaign ad, The Post has learned. City Councilman Ruben Wills is now trying to turn the tables, demanding that Schneiderman be removed as the prosecutor in his case for violating a court rule barring prejudicial pretrial publicity against a defendant. Schneiderman’s 30-second TV commercial shows news footage of Wills — handcuffed from behind — being “perp walked” to a vehicle by two police officers. * Schneiderman, at Columbia,laments the state of politics (Capital) “I’m proud of the fact that in the last three and half years—probably every month or so—we have done something that no one has ever done before,” Schneiderman told the gathering. “We change the way people are doing business and the way that governments are operating.”