Frederick W. Richmond, a New York philanthropist and civic chief who helped save Carnegie Corridor from demolition however whose tenure in Congress
Frederick W. Richmond, a New York philanthropist and civic chief who helped save Carnegie Corridor from demolition however whose tenure in Congress — and public life — ended abruptly in 1982 when he pleaded responsible to corruption costs, died on Dec. 28 at a nursing house in Manhattan. He was 96.
Gloria Spalding, a longtime buddy, confirmed the loss of life and mentioned the trigger was pneumonia.
Earlier than his fall, Mr. Richmond had been a profitable businessman and a distinguished civic participant: a human rights commissioner of New York Metropolis, president of the City League of New York, a New York State cultural official and a protector of Carnegie Corridor when it confronted the wrecking ball within the 1960s.
A liberal Democrat, he was elected to the Home of Representatives from Brooklyn in 1974 as a part of a congressional class of post-Watergate reformers. As a member of the Home Agriculture Committee, he helped develop the meals stamp program, promoted city gardens and held hearings to analyze Latin American espresso cartels. Forward of his time, he grew an natural vegetable backyard on the roof outdoors his Home workplace constructing.
And with a web price of $34 million, he was one of many wealthiest members of Congress.
“He was the most effective we had,” Meade Esposito, the highly effective Brooklyn Democratic boss, informed Pete Hamill and Denis Hamill, brother journalists who explored Mr. Richmond’s life in New York Journal in 1982. “Someplace alongside the road he acquired misplaced.”
In April 1978, Mr. Richmond was arrested in Washington for soliciting intercourse from a 16-year-old boy and an undercover cop. He apologized publicly, saying he had “made unhealthy judgments involving my personal life.” He admitted to a misdemeanor morals cost, which was dropped after he agreed to 30 days of counseling. In his marketing campaign for re-election that 12 months, he made hefty donations to native charities and simply received a 3rd time period.
However he quickly grew to become enmeshed in a monetary scandal involving self-dealing with Walco Nationwide, a holding firm he based. He had appeared to resign as its president to adjust to Home guidelines that barred members of Congress from incomes outdoors earnings exceeding 15 % of their Home wage. However a federal choose discovered that he had feigned his retirement with the intention to gather a pension on the fee of $100,000 a 12 months whereas nonetheless working the corporate. He additionally used Walco staff to do political work for him.
Mr. Richmond asserted his innocence to The New York Occasions. “I’m not ashamed of something I’ve accomplished,” he said in 1981. “I’ve accomplished nothing mistaken.”
A federal grand jury on the time was investigating him on an array of different costs. In a single, he was mentioned to have helped a profession prison from Massachusetts, who had escaped from jail, get a clerical job within the Home of Representatives; the convict was arrested whereas sitting in Mr. Richmond’s automobile and soliciting an undercover police officer for sexual favors.
As rumors swirled, Mr. Richmond blamed the Reagan administration’s Justice Division and The Occasions for his woes.
“If I have been a conservative Republican from the Center West, I don’t suppose I’d have as a lot bother as I’ve proper now,” he told United Press International. He mentioned The Occasions had a vendetta towards him, noting that the columnist Sydney Schanberg had known as him “a one-man crime wave.”
However at the same time as federal prosecutors closed in on him, Mr. Richmond continued to run for a fifth time period in 1982.
That quest led to August, when he accepted a plea deal underneath which he resigned his seat instantly, dropped his bid for re-election and pleaded responsible to a few costs: tax evasion, for underreporting his 1980 federal earnings tax by $50,000; possession of marijuana, obtained from his Congressional employees; and making an unlawful cost to a authorities worker.
“These acts to which I’ve pled responsible have been irresponsible, pointless, silly and mistaken,” he mentioned in a press release.
He was sentenced to a year and a day in jail and fined $20,000.
In a separate settlement with the Securities and Change Fee, he agreed to return $425,000 in improper pension funds that he had acquired from Walco for faking his retirement.
Mr. Richmond’s private life suffered one other blow when a younger man whom he had been planning to undertake dedicated suicide in Mr. Richmond’s Sutton Place condominium in Manhattan. Mr. Richmond was in Washington on the time awaiting sentencing.
Frederick William Richmond was born in Boston on Nov. 15, 1923, to George and Frances (Rosen) Richmond. His father was a lawyer, his mom a homemaker who gave her son piano classes.
Fred went to Boston College, enrolled briefly at Harvard and enlisted within the Navy throughout World Battle II. After the struggle he returned to Boston College and graduated in 1946. To pay for his schooling, he shaped the Freddie Richmond Swing Band, with himself on the piano.
After school he moved to New York and began a profitable import-export enterprise. He married Monique Alice Pflieger, a socialite, in…