Sentences In Developers' Scheme to Pack Hudson Valley Voter Rolls

Sentences for two men in a conspiracy to build a massive development in the Hudson Valley for the region's growing Orthodox Jewish population were announced Thursday by Joon H. Kim, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Kenneth Nakdimen of Monsey and Shalom Lamm of Bloomingburg were accused in December 2016 of an elaborate scheme to rig a local election.

That scheme included putting toothbrushes into empty apartments to make them look occupied so they could pack the voter rolls with false registrations and elect officials who would grant them permits for a series of housing developments.

“False and fraudulent voter registrations have no place in our democracy," Kim said Thursday. "As the sentences imposed on Shalom Lamm and Kenneth Nakdimen show, those who try to undermine the integrity of our elections will be prosecuted and punished.”

The conspiracy centered on the tiny village of Bloomingburg, in Sullivan County north and west of Middletown on Route 17. Its population at the 2010 census was 420.

As the first in their series of planned developments, the men were pushing a project called Chestnut Ridge, which was to be a 396-unit Hasidic community. Residents objected, so the developers concocted a plan with the help of the town supervisor.

Harold Baird, the former town supervisor of Mamakating, entered a guilty plea in 2016 in connection with the scheme.

Nakdimen, 64, was sentenced in September to six months in prison, Kim said. Lamm was sentenced Thursday to 10 months in prison.

In addition to the prison terms, Lamm, 58, was sentenced to one year of supervised release, a $20,000 fine, and 400 hours of community service and Nakdimen, 64, was also ordered to pay a $20,000 fine and do 400 hours of community service.

Kim praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI-Hudson Valley White Collar Crime Task Force, the Sullivan County District Attorney’s Office, the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, the Internal Revenue Service, and the United States Postal Inspection Service. Kim also thanked the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section, Election Crimes Branch, for its assistance in the case.

SEE ALSO:

• Developers Tried to Rig Hudson Valley Election: US Attorney
  
• Rigged-Election Conspiracy: Hudson Valley Developer Enters Plea
  

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