BLOOMINGBURG – On Tuesday, June 6, developer Shalom Lamm pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to corrupt the electoral process. He faces up to five years in prison for his part in a vote buying scheme that was meant to swing the 2014 village board election in Bloomingburg.

Two weeks ago, Lamm's business partner in the controversial Chestnut Ridge development, Kenneth Nakdimen, pled guilty to a similar charge. He has since reached a plea deal with the prosecution for a sentence of 6-12 months in prison and a fine of not more than $20,000, although this deal has not yet been accepted by a federal judge. Nakdimen will be sentenced on September 7.

Lamm, Nakdimen and Volvy Smilowitz were indicted on federal charges last December, accused of paying people to pretend they were residents of the village and file false claims to that end so they could vote in the village elections. They backdated fake leases for properties they owned in Bloomingburg and even went to the trouble of putting out toothbrushes to suggest that the rooms were being used.

The FBI staged a raid on the village prior to that election and removed, among other things, laptop computers. The scheme failed, and the Lamm-supported candidates lost the 2014 village election. However, in subsequent elections they defeated a referendum to dissolve the village of Bloomingburg, and then succeeded in winning a new slate of village trustees in 2015, a majority they've kept ever since.

In federal court, Nakdimen described the events that led up to all this as beginning with a development proposal for a retirement community and golf course that no longer looked economically viable following the collapse of the real estate market in 2007. That, the developer said, forced a search for a new purpose for the permits they'd been granted for 396 town homes by the Bloomingburg planning board.

When village residents, and people in the surrounding town of Mamakating eventually realized that the town homes were going to be occupied by Hasidic Jews, there was a sudden surge in concern expressed at village meetings that resulted in years of acrimony and lawsuits.

Last year, documents unsealed in a federal civil rights case brought against the town and village by Lamm exposed a plan by the developers that appeared to precede the initial retirement community scheme and mentioned the annexing of land for up to 5,000 residential units in Bloomingburg, something that would have even altered the population makeup of Sullivan County.

Following news of Lamm's plea, Mamakating supervisor Bill Herrmann released a statement through the town's public relations firm, Soury Communications, based in New York City, in which he stated, "We are very pleased that the Department of Justice has pursued the voter fraud case against developer Shalom Lamm and his co-defendants and has obtained convictions. Based on the extent of the fraud and the harm done to our community, we are anxious to go before the judge and supply a victim impact statement. Our community has suffered greatly over these past years."

Herrmann added that the town believes that further criminal action may be uncovered beyond these convictions and that the town "can seek to revisit the lawsuits that have been filed against our community, especially the federal case charging us with discrimination. We believe that case was based on fraudulent information and lies."

In 2014, Lamm filed a suit against the town and the village alleging anti-Semitic discrimination. That case ended when the municipalities' insurance companies forced a settlement for $2.9 million over the objections of the town. The Sullivan County Board of Elections was also accused of discrimination against Hasidic voters in 2015 and an election commissioner was forced to resign, further monies were paid in fines, and the county agreed to henceforth accommodate Hasidic voters with bilingual signs and aid.

The litigation over Chestnut Ridge, meanwhile, continues. In February, Mamakating filed another suit, this time against the Bloomingburg planning board that had been consolidated with the town's planning board in 2014, only to be brought back under the village's oversight a little over a year later. The town suit charged that the village's reissued building permits for Chestnut Ridge were illegal since the village had ceded planning authority to the town and the town had rescinded those approvals.

Meanwhile, the first fifty units have been built at Chestnut Ridge and mostly occupied. A private religious school for boys has opened in a repurposed building and several other shops and businesses related to the village's new orthodox community have opened as well. A judge's decision against the village is currently being appealed, albeit with new attorneys representing Bloomingburg.

Expect more reportage from this week's village board meeting in Bloomingburg in next week's issue.