A close ally of embattled Assemblyman Vito Lopez pleaded guilty this afternoon to giving the feds falsified documents during a probe of the social-services empire that serves as his power base.
Christiana Fisher faces up to six months in the slammer after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of contempt of court.
"I was aware of forged documents and tax filings that inaccurately stated that the board of directors of the Ridgewood-Bushwick Senior Citizens Council had approved increases to my salary," Fisher said in Manhattan federal court.
"I allowed those documents to be produced to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York."
J.C. Rice
Christiana Fisher,
Fisher also admitted knowing that the papers "misrepresented material facts" to the feds when they were turned over in September 2010.
Fisher was ousted as the longtime executive director of Ridgewood-Bushwick earlier this year after the city Department of Investigation found she had "recreated" missing documents to justify her eye-popping $782,000 compensation package for fiscal 2009, which more than doubled what she pocketed the previous year.
As part of her plea deal, Fisher agreed to forfeit nearly $171,000 that prosecutor Carrie Cohen said represented the amount of money Fisher pocketed as a result of the falsified documents.
Fisher also faces a potential fine of twice that amount.
Fisher was accompanied to court by Lopez' girlfriend, Angela Battaglia, a longtime pal and Ridgewood-Bushwick exec who was paid $343,000 by the publicly funded non-profit in 2009.
Lopez, a Brooklyn Democrat who founded Ridgewood-Bushwick in 1973, is currently enmeshed in a sex-harassment scandal and has said he might not seek re-election, despite winning 90 percent of the vote earlier this month.
Fisher declined comment as she left the courthouse, but defense lawyer Douglas Grover insisted: "This isn't about Vito. It just isn't."
Grover also said Fisher had been "a wonderful administrator who grew a very significant organization which serves tens of thousands of people every day."
"I just think it's a sad circumstance because it's not greed" that prompted Fisher's crime, he said.
Grover declined to elaborate but said details would be provided to the judge ahead of Fisher's scheduled April 17 sentencing.
Lopez ally pleads guilty to duping feds
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Lopez ally pleads guilty to duping feds
