Mamakating Supervisor William Herrmann on Chestnut Ridge Developer Shalom Lamm’s Conviction

Statement from Herrman's office after developer Shalom Lamm pleaded guilty in federal court:

(Mamakating, NY – June 6, 2017)  "We are very pleased that the Department of Justice has pursued the voter fraud case against developer Shalom Lamm and his co-defendants and has obtained convictions. Based on the extent of the fraud and the harm done to our community, we are anxious to go before the judge and supply a victim impact statement. Our community has suffered greatly over these past years.

We believe this is the tip of the iceberg in uncovering wrongdoing and corruption beyond voter fraud. We are hopeful that based on the conviction of these men we can seek to revisit the lawsuits that have been filed against our community, especially the federal case charging us with discrimination. We believe that case was based on fraudulent information and lies.

The developers, while they pleaded guilty, are still very active in hurting our community. Lamm and his co- defendants are building and developing based upon zoning approvals whose foundations were also built on false information. We are trying to stop this.

This is the first step in vindication for the entire community that has fought so hard to expose the efforts of Lamm, Nakdimen and his co-conspirators. The fraud they committed on our community must be fully revealed. I applaud all those in this community who have fought so hard to expose this wrongdoing. Thank you to the FBI and the US Attorney's office for their hard work in bringing these men to justice.” 

The voter fraud case involved efforts to fraudulently influence elections in order to get approvals to build a large housing development in a tiny town in the Catskills.

Developers had proposed 125 luxury homes and a golf course, and then plans were later submitted for a 396-unit development, It was revealed that developer had intentionally submitted false information during the project review and approval process and planned to build much larger project than the one presented for approval. In documents unsealed by a federal court judge, developers intended to annex land from the Town and build up to 5,000 units in the Village of Bloomingburg. Blooming burg has a population of 420 people. 

According to the original indictment dated December 15, 2016, Shalom Lamm, Kenneth Nakdimen and Volvy Smilowitz allegedly bribed voters by offering payments, subsidies and other items of value to get non-residents of Bloomingburg to unlawfully register to vote. “Lamm, for example agreed to pay an individual $500 for every voter that the individual procured and Lamm and Nakdimen’s real estate company ultimately paid the individual more than $30,000 per month for his efforts.” See indictment, http://bit.ly/2kEAGRH.

"The defendants hoped to make hundreds of millions from their real estate projects" in Bloomingburg. "When met with resistance rather than seek to advance their real estate projects 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 elect public officials favorable to their projects."