Former NY State Official, Husband Plead Guilty to Fraud

A married couple pleaded guilty to charges that the wife used her position as a state official to steer a contract to a company where her husband had connections.

James and Johanna “Jody” Hall pleaded guilty to scheme to defraud in exchange for sentences of probation. The Staten Island couple also were ordered to repay the $8,000 they got for fixing the contract bidding.

Hall, 43, was special deputy superintendent of the New York Liquidation Bureau. The liquidation bureau takes over financially troubled insurance companies and tries to fix them and return them to the marketplace, or it distributes bankrupt insurance companies’ assets to creditors.

Her husband James Hall, a 42-year-old architectural designer, helped steer a state space planning contract to MB Shapes and Forms in July 2006. The job involved consolidating offices that the liquidation bureau leased in downtown Manhattan.

Both defendants admitted the company paid them $8,000 after getting the contract.

Prosecutors say MB Shapes and Forms was not charged with any crime.

Johanna Hall also pleaded guilty to third-degree grand larceny, admitting that she charged $3,671 for her baby-sitter’s salary and travel expenses to Orlando, Fla., to her bureau. She agreed to repay the $3,671.

The Halls both would have faced up to seven years in prison if they had gone to trial and had been convicted of forgery, the top count in the original indictment.