The federal criminal complaint filed against the late Assemblyman Bill Nojay has been unsealed, accusing the Republican official of wire fraud.
The complaint says Nojay misappropriated about $800,000 from a legal client’s escrow account. He used the money for his re-election campaign, to pay a lobbyist, for his children and to pay the property taxes on his home. He diverted about $221,000 to the account of a business he was affiliated with in Pennsylvania.
The complaint doesn’t name the owner of that escrow account, but the Democrat and Chronicle has previously reported he’s local architect Carlton DeWolff.
The complaint was to have been read in court the morning that Nojay committed suicide in September. It remained sealed after that event until Judge David Larimer ruled today that it should be opened.