Former Sen. Carl Kruger gets seven years for corruption

Former Brooklyn state Senator Carl Kruger was sentenced to seven years in prison in Manhattan federal court on Thursday for taking more than a $1 million in bribes.
Kruger, 62, resigned from office amid a swirl of scandal and ultimately pleaded guilty to corruption charges in December.

Kruger's gynecologist companion and co-conspirator Dr. Michael Turano, 50, was expected to be sentenced later in the day before Judge Jad Rakoff.

Kruger, once chair of the Senate Finance Committee, was the apparent architect of an elaborate bribery scheme, in which the then-senator funneled illegal payments into shell companies set up by Turano. Authorities accused him of accepting over $1 million in bribes from a combination of hospital executives, lobbyists and healthcare consultants.

Prosecutors in the case had asked the judge for 9 to 12 years.

“My actions will forever overshadow whatever legacy I managed to achieve," Kruger said just before his sentencing, according to The New York Times. "I have no one but myself to blame, and that reality will haunt me."