WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (CN) - The former chief of staff for state Sen. Vincent Leibell pleaded guilty Thursday to obstructing a grand jury investigation of Leibell, who is serving 21 months in federal prison for extorting kickbacks, and being caught on tape asking a county attorney to lie about it to the grand jury.
Raymond Maguire, 47, pleaded guilty to a one-count federal information, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Maguire returned from Afghanistan, where he was serving as a captain in the U.S. Air Force, to enter his plea.
Maguire was Leibell's chief of staff from 2005 until December 2010, when Leibell resigned.
Leibell steered millions of dollars in state money to a nonprofit that he partly controlled, and Maguire helped administrate, and the nonprofit in turn gave nearly $10 million in "lucrative construction work" to "a favored contractor," prosecutors said in a statement announcing Maguire's guilty plea.
The state money and the contractor used the money to help Leibell build himself a $1.7 million house in Putnam County, prosecutors said.
Maguire faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine at his Dec. 16 sentencing.
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