US congressman Michael Grimm was indicted on Tuesday on fraud, perjury and obstruction of justice charges, accused by federal prosecutors of making $1 million "disappear" from the books of a business he owned.
The former FBI agent and a second-term Republican from Staten Island was taken into custody and brought to federal court where he pleaded not guilty to charges linked to his conduct while the owner of a health food restaurant before he became a member of the House of Representatives.
A federal indictment charged Grimm with 20 counts, including five counts each of mail fraud and wire fraud, three counts of filing false tax returns, and two counts of perjury.
"Michael Grimm made the choice to go from upholding the law to breaking it. In so doing he turned his back on every oath he had ever taken," US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, loretta lynch said.
She outlined how Grimm hired undocumented workers and paid them off the books so he could fraudulently under-report earnings at Healthalicious, the Manhattan restaurant he co-owned from 2007 through 2010. The scheme, lynch said, allowed Grimm to make "over $1 million simply disappear."