N.Y. / Region|U.S. Ties Legislator's Ex-Associate to Mob
https://nyti.ms/UBeM06
U.S. Ties Legislator's Ex-Associate to Mob
By ALISON LEIGH COWAN OCT. 8, 2012
Bennett Orfaly, who owned a restaurant with Representative Michael G. Grimm, trying to shield Ofer Biton, a former fund-raiser for the congressman, from cameras in Brooklyn last week. Credit Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
In 2006, when Michael G. Grimm retired from a career as an undercover agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a businessman named Bennett Orfaly helped smooth his return to civilian life.
Together, they opened a small restaurant on the Upper East Side called Healthalicious that served salads, wraps and smoothies. The business helped Mr. Grimm, a Republican, burnish his image as an entrepreneur in his victorious 2010 campaign for the Congressional seat representing Staten Island and part of Brooklyn.
Now, federal prosecutors are contending that Mr. Orfaly has ties to a member of the Gambino organized crime family, Anthony (Fat Tony) Morelli, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for racketeering and extortion in an elaborate tax fraud.
The prosecutors made the accusation public at a bail hearing last month for a former campaign fund-raiser for Mr. Grimm. The fund-raiser, Ofer Biton, an Israeli, is charged with immigration fraud.
Mr. Biton is also at the center of an inquiry by the United States attorney's office in Brooklyn into Mr. Grimm's campaign finances. Investigators are examining whether Mr. Grimm and Mr. Biton raised donations for Mr. Grimm's 2010 campaign that exceeded contribution limits, were given in cash or came from foreigners without green cards.
At the hearing for Mr. Biton, Anthony Capozzolo, a federal prosecutor in Brooklyn who specializes in public corruption, objected to Mr. Orfaly's being allowed to pledge cash and assets to assure Mr. Biton's bail.
"Mr. Orfaly maintains constant contact" with Mr. Morelli in prison, Mr. Capozzolo told the court, noting that Mr. Orfaly "has visited him and engaged in telephone conversations."
The prosecutor also mentioned in court that F.B.I. agents had found a car registration that ties Mr. Orfaly to Mr. Morelli's wife, Mary Ann.
"Our position is that this is not someone who should be acceptable as a surety with regard to Mr. Biton," Mr. Capozzolo said.
Mr. Grimm's office did not respond to questions last week about Mr. Orfaly. The New York Post on Monday quoted Mr. Grimm's lawyer, William McGinley, as saying that Mr. Grimm had no knowledge of Mr. Orfaly's associates.
Mr. Grimm has said he no longer has an ownership stake in the restaurant.
Mr. Grimm is in a re-election race with a Democratic challenger, Mark Murphy, who has sought to make an issue of Mr. Grimm's ethics. Mr. Grimm has declared that the federal inquiry will exonerate him.
At the bail hearing, Mr. Biton's lawyer, John Meringolo, argued that simply knowing someone who committed a crime or visiting someone in prison should not disqualify a person from assisting with bail.
Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis, in approving a $1.5 million bond package for Mr. Biton, allowed Mr. Orfaly to put up $30,000 in cash and his interest in two restaurants as assets that would be forfeited if Mr. Biton failed to appear for trial.
Approached by a reporter at the hearing, Mr. Orfaly declined to discuss his relationship with Mr. Morelli.
It could not be determined whether Mr. Grimm ever had dealings with Mr. Morelli before or after he resigned from the F.B.I. in 2006.
New York City records indicate that Mr. Grimm's ties to Mr. Orfaly begin as early as 2006, when Mr. Grimm began laying the legal framework for the restaurant that the two men would jointly operate at Second Avenue and 83rd Street.
Their work together continued for at least three years. In June 2009, both men signed a city health department application to renew a license for the restaurant, documents show.
A few months later, the accountant for the restaurant, Wayne Muratore, was listed in campaign finance documents as the first treasurer of Mr. Grimm's 2010 campaign for the House. Mr. Muratore did not respond to phone calls or e-mails.
Mr. Grimm has said that he sold his interest in Healthalicious before taking office in January 2011, although he has given varying accounts of how and when the deal transpired.
He continues to be a defendant in legal actions brought by restaurant employees and New York State officials over the restaurant's labor practices.
A version of this article appears in print on October 9, 2012, on Page A22 of the New York edition with the headline: U.S. Ties Legislator's Ex-Associate to Mob. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe