In the plea, McFadden admitted to claiming personal deductions he was not entitled to in 2015-2017

His plea means he will be removed from City Council

The charges are related to financial activity of Rochester Housing Charities

Rochester City Council Vice President Adam McFadden admitted Monday that he committed fraud valued at more than $134,000 — some of it obtained from lies and exaggerations about his work for a housing nonprofit and the rest from three years of fraudulent tax returns.

McFadden, 48, pleaded guilty Monday to wire fraud and filing a false tax return in 2015. He also admitted that he lied on tax returns for 2016 and 2017 by claiming illegitimate business deductions.

Federal sentencing guidelines, which are not mandatory for judges to follow, recommend a sentence between 12 and 18 months. He is scheduled to be sentenced June 27.

With his plea to two felony crimes, McFadden will lose his City Council seat. He had decided after he was arrested in late February that he would not seek re-election this year.

Asked in court Monday by U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Wolford why he committed crimes, McFadden answered, "Truthfully, your honor, my own narcissism and ego."

In a later interview, McFadden elaborated: "I knew what my intentions were, so I figured I was right. ... I had no malice in my heart, or criminal intent .... I felt that I understood the people, and what they needed."

Not long after being charged, however, he came to the conclusion that intent was one thing, actions were another.

He said in court that he "cut corners" and took "shortcuts" and created events "that weren't actual and factual." Those events, as evidenced by McFadden's plea, were more than inaccurate and non-factual: They were criminal.

In particular, McFadden benefited from his work on behalf of Rochester Housing Authority, or RHA, the public agency that subsidizes housing for the poor and that McFadden briefly headed as interim executive director in 2014.

However, McFadden's wire fraud crimes are the offspring of his 2015 work for Rochester Housing Charities, a subsidiary of RHA. A company owned by McFadden — Caesar Development LLC — was the primary beneficiary of a no-bid contract from Rochester Housing Charities.

The $87,500 contract was awarded to a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, Capital Connection Partners LLC, through which 75 percent of the funding was passed to McFadden’s company.

Federal prosecutors did not portray the "pass-through" contract as illegitimate. According to federal authorities, Capital Connection Partners had only one client — McFadden's company — and is no longer in business.

McFadden is an acquaintance of a founding board member of Capital Connection Partners, Lisa Ransom. Reached on her cellphone Monday, Ransom declined to comment.

In 2015, a lawyer for Rochester Housing Charities initially questioned an invoice from Capital Connection Partners because it provided few details about the work, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Resnick. McFadden then forwarded to Capital Connection Partners a list of jobs he said he had performed or was performing, and Capital Connection Partners amended its invoice with the information.

Those claims — among them that McFadden researched programs for school-aged children and that he tried to negotiate a $1.9 million contract for cellphone towers on RHA properties — were often untrue or "gross exaggerations," McFadden admitted Monday.

"So you got paid for work you didn't do?" Wolford asked McFadden Monday.

"Yes," McFadden answered.

"And you got paid for that?"

"Yes."

The FBI has also accused former RHA Chairman George Moses of offenses stemming from McFadden's crimes. Moses allegedly conspired with McFadden to convince RHA board members that there had been three vendors seeking the consulting and assistance contract awarded to Capital Connection Partners, when there had only been the one with McFadden's company.

Moses is accused of fraud and lying to the FBI.

McFadden's plea Monday does not include any agreement to cooperate with the current investigation.

The plea was relatively quick, just over a month after McFadden's arrest.

"My client wants to get this thing behind him," his attorney, Joseph Damelio, said after the plea.

With the tax fraud plea, McFadden said he did not accurately report taxes for 2015. He also admitted that his 2016 and 2017 tax returns were fraudulent, and that he lied about deductions, claiming his business was renting properties that it wasn't.

McFadden must return $87,500 to the housing authority and pay more than $46,000 in back taxes.

U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy Jr. and FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jeremy Bell said Monday that authorities will continue to pursue allegations of public corruption.

"Public servants take an oath to uphold the law and to serve their constituents," Kennedy said. "When they don't do that, our entire system of government is in danger."

McFadden was first elected as a member of Rochester's City Council in 2003 representing the south district, and he was chosen by his colleagues to serve as the council's vice president in 2018. Under the state's public officers law, an elected official convicted of a felony is immediately removed from office.

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McFadden had served as the executive director of Quad A for Kids, a Rochester nonprofit that provides after-school programs. He was fired from that position on March 8.

In an interview, McFadden — whose has made police accountability a centerpiece of his political career — said he could not make those demands of others, and not himself.

"When you do wrong, you have to own it," he said. As for what lies ahead: "I don’t think there is anyway to prepare for it.

"Only thing I can tell you is ... in order to get to greatness sometimes you have to go through darkness. I don't know what God has planned for me. I have to walk in my faith that I can repent and be redeemed. I have to start paying off in actions for the things I did wrong."

Includes reporting by staff writer Brian Sharp.

SLAHMAN@Gannett.com

GCRAIG@Gannett.com