DOJ's probe into Suffolk DA's asset forfeiture practices during prior administration is over, officials say

The federal criminal investigation into how prior administrations at the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office used asset forfeiture funds in undercover money laundering operations has concluded, clearing the way for the office to access an estimated $13 million in asset forfeiture funds, officials said Wednesday.

Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney, speaking at an unrelated news conference in Riverhead Wednesday, disclosed to reporters the yearslong investigation into alleged practices connected to federal asset forfeiture funds by prior administrations, which had frozen the office's access to the funding stream, was over.

"Unbelievably, seemingly out of nowhere, the investigation is over and we're gonna be getting access to that money," said Tierney, who later clarified that, procedurally, the office has to reapply to the program.

"It's amazing, when government is responsive, what can happen," Tierney said.

Tania Lopez, the spokesperson for the district attorney's office, said in an email Wednesday: "The office has not yet received any federal forfeiture monies, but we recently received 'positive news' as to the District Attorney's efforts to get the Department of Justice to release forfeiture monies. The office estimates those monies would be approximately $13 million, but the exact total has not been adjudicated yet. "

The district attorney's office was alerted to the development in a Feb. 28 letter from Joseph T. McNally, acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, which said the investigation has been closed but did not provide any findings or say whether any criminal charges will be filed.

"Based on my review of the facts and information in your submission to the United States Attorney’s Office, the criminal investigation into this matter has been closed," McNally wrote in the brief letter, which the district attorney's office provided to Newsday upon request. "We have advised the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section that the criminal investigation is closed."

Newsday reported in 2023 that federal authorities had launched the investigation, citing a letter from Allen Bode, Tierney's chief assistant.

Bode called the probe an "ongoing federal criminal investigation” into the use of federal asset forfeiture proceeds that he said began under the administration of former Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota and continued under former Suffolk District Attorney Timothy Sini, who Tierney unseated.

The investigation, which was launched by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles and the FBI, prevented the district attorney's office from accessing federal asset forfeiture funds.

The funds are derived from alleged criminal activity and can be used to compensate on equipment to deter crime.

In his April 14, 2023, letter to a Smithtown official, Bode said the funds had been frozen for the past two and a half years.

At the time, Sini, now a defense attorney, denied any wrongdoing and called Bode's letter politically motivated.

Spota was incarcerated at the time on his conviction for conspiring to cover up a police beating. Last year, Spota was released three years into his 5-year sentence.

Tierney said Wednesday he expects the office to regain access to the funds and would likely use the money to fund overtime pay for investigators and to buy equipment.

"I'm happy that it's over and now we can reapply to the federal asset forfeiture program to get the money released to us so we can use it to benefit the residents of Suffolk County," Tierney said.

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.