A Long Island legislator was indicted Tuesday for allegedly setting up a shell company in his wife’s name to keep his cushy fire department consulting gig, despite being told by an ethics board he would have to give up the work when he assumed office.
Rudy Sunderman, the Republican legislator for Suffolk County’s 3rd District, was hauled before a county judge on charges including perjury, dual office-holding and having a conflict of interest, according to an indictment.
Shortly after his election in late 2017, Sunderman announced that he would step down from positions including Centereach Fire District manager, taking a hefty pay cut, according to Newsday.
But prosecutors allege that he stepped aside in word only, continuing his work in a company called Now That’s Fire Management run by his wife — and lied about it under oath to the Suffolk County Board of Ethics.
“I have never received income from Now That’s Fire Management,” Sunderman told the board in October 2018, though admitting that he held an unpaid position for the group, according to the filing.
Sunderman testified that the company’s $10,000-a-month income went to his wife, and that he was unpaid, the papers show.
The pol also allegedly “personally authorized six payments totaling $60,000.00 from the Centereach Fire District to Now That’s Fire Management Inc.” between January and June 2018, drawing a conflict of interest charge.
Sunderman — who took office in January 2018 for the district including Brookhaven, Mastic and Yaphank — maintained his innocence in a press briefing following the court appearance.