With the arrests of developer Shalom Lamm and two of his associates on December 14, [see news story on page 4] it seems that some of the residents in and around Bloomingburg may finally see a bit of justice. But it may be coming too late to make any real difference on the ground. At the middle of the history in the Bloomingburg story, if you believe federal prosecutor Preet Bharara, is the question of who gets to vote in elections.

Lamm has tried to paint this story as one about prejudice against Hasidic Jews, and there may well be some of that involved here. But there is much evidence to say that this story is also about significant levels of fraud.

The federal indictment is clear that in advance of the vote for village officials in 2014, Lamm and his associates planned to get people who did not live in the village to vote in the village election, including some people who had never stepped foot in Bloomingburg. The indictment says, “When met with resistance, rather than seek to advance their real estate development project through legitimate means, the defendants instead decided to corrupt the electoral process in Bloomingburg by falsely registering voters and paying bribes for voters who would help elect public officials favorable to their project.”

This is not a surprise to many of the residents in the village and the surrounding Town of Mamakating, which is why about 90 voters in that March 2014 election were challenged. Judge Stephan Schick subpoenaed all of the challenged voters, including Lamm, and asked them to come to the court and explain why they should be able to vote. Lamm’s lawyer at the time said all of those challenged voters decided that they would choose to pay a fine rather than testify.

That should have been a signal to everyone involved that there was voting monkey business going on. The local residents understood this to be the case, and in the vote to dissolve the Village of Bloomingburg on September 2014, nearly 70 voters were challenged. But ultimately those challenged voters were counted and allowed to remain on the voting rolls even though the Sullivan County Board of Elections (BOE) had determined that the challenged voters were not eligible to vote.

So, the dissolution was not approved by the voters because those ineligible outsiders were allowed to vote, and Lamm got what he wanted, which was for the village to remain independent of the town, so that his project could more easily move forward.

In the most recent election for town officials no voters were challenged, at least in part because of the settlement of a discrimination lawsuit brought by Lamm against the BOE, which made it all but impossible to challenge voters in the village. And once again Lamm got what he wanted, which was a village board that would support his project, and that would pull planning authority for the village away from the Town of Mamakating and back to the village board to make progress for the project easier.

With the indictment comes the suspicion not just that the 2014 election was marred by voter fraud, but also the votes that came after that. It’s not clear whether the indictment will mean any changes in terms of the outcomes of these other votes; it seems possible that because the other votes were not mentioned in the indictment, the results will remain as they are.

But anyone who has followed this story at all knows that this latest indictment is only one of many allegations of wrongdoing against Lamm. A RICO lawsuit filed against Lamm and his partner Kenneth Nakdimen—which was dismissed in October—alleged that the planning for the controversial 396-unit known as the Villages of Chestnut Ridge in Bloomingburg, was deceptive from day one.

According to the complaint, Lamm and Nakdimen “…have attempted to exert power and influence in a variety of schemes with the sole goal of controlling these municipalities for the benefit of the racketeering enterprise which they head.”

Now Bharara’s office, which has a proven track record of bringing the wealthy and powerful to justice, has weighed in on some of Lamm’s maneuvering, and perhaps there will be more coming in the future. Residents of Bloomingburg have been sounding the alarm for years; it’s about time a prosecutor steps in.