The rise of Congressman Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., has coincided with lucrative lobbying contracts for his younger brother, John Crowley, an attorney who goes by the first name Sean, and previously specialized in wills and estate law. Sean Crowley serves as a partner at Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP, a powerhouse law firm with offices in Albany, New York City, and Washington, D.C., that advertises its ability to connect clients with congressional leadership. Over the last decade, clients with interests before Congress have retained Sean Crowley through his lobbying firm, paying more than $4.5 million to influence and monitor government policies, according to a review of contracts by The Intercept. Clients in recent years have included Oracle, AbbVie, NBCUniversal, Juniper Systems, New York Community Bancorp, Abbott Labs, and Elections Systems & Software. In many cases, the interests of Sean Crowley’s clients have overlapped with his elder brother’s legislative and political work.

In 2015, Joe Crowley voted in favor of legislation to nullify a rule established by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau designed to prevent racial discrimination in the auto loan industry. The legislation was heavily promoted by the National Automobile Dealers Association, the New York affiliate of which retains Sean Crowley as a lobbyist on regulatory issues, including city rules meant to curb predatory lending practices. In 2013, Joe Crowley helped award $10 million in federal assistance to the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Cooperative, a merchants association in the Bronx that retained Sean Crowley as a lobbyist. In 2009, both Crowley brothers worked to assist the life insurance settlement industry. A few months after President Barack Obama’s inauguration, Joe Crowley, newly empowered with his first major leadership post at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and a perch on the powerful committee dealing with tax legislation, traveled to Orlando, Florida, to address hundreds of financial representatives. Joe Crowley, speaking to the Life Insurance Settlement Association’s annual meeting, reassured executives, and noted that Obama had made no mention of life insurance or life insurance settlements during his recent speech outlining his tax agenda, suggesting the audience might be spared from any future tax hikes. “I think for your industry, that is a good thing,” said Crowley. “It doesn’t mean that you’re out of the woods, but it’s a good thing.” The congressman encouraged the attendees to contact Democratic lawmakers on the Ways and Means Committee and continue to lobby to share their views. The friendly chat coincided with a lucrative contract for Crowley’s younger brother, Sean, who was retained by the Life Insurance Settlement Association earlier that year to influence tax legislation on Capitol Hill. Sean Crowley’s lobbying firm, Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, went on to collect $140,000 on behalf of the life insurance settlement client. The engagement with the life insurance settlement lobby also provided a lift to Joe Crowley. He was the largest recipient of Life Insurance Settlement Association political action committee donations during the 2010 election cycle. Despite overlapping interests, officials on behalf of both brothers strongly deny that Sean has ever lobbied his elder brother. “Sean Crowley has never lobbied the congressman’s office as we have a long-standing policy in place that prevents him from doing so,” a spokesperson for Joe Crowley emailed The Intercept, when asked about Sean’s lobbying activities. Sid Davidoff, founding partner of Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, said in a statement to The Intercept that, “Sean Crowley has never lobbied Congressman Joe Crowley, nor will he.” A report last year in the New York Post revealed that Joe Crowley has also paid nearly $70,000 in campaign funds to a company owned by Sean, called Killean Enterprises LLC. Joe Crowley claimed the money was rent for a campaign office, though the space owned by the younger Crowley brother is outside the district. Before working as a lobbyist, Sean served as an attorney at a firm called Crowley, Crowley & Kaufman, a partnership with Scott Kaufman, the treasurer of Joe Crowley’s political action committee. Joe Crowley has faced years of headlines charging that he engages in nepotism and unethical political patronage. As the boss of the Queens Democratic Party, he has nominated associates to the borough election commission, helped allies win election to the New York City Council, and appointed family friends to the Queens Surrogate’s Court. The court appointments have gained increasing scrutiny after reports that associates of Joe Crowley are routinely selected as court-appointed guardians who have earned millions of dollars processing the estates of residents who pass away without establishing a will. Gerard Sweeney, an official at the Queens Democratic Party and a Crowley lieutenant, has raked in over $30 million administering estates through his position as an administration attorney at the Surrogate’s Court, which he won through his relationship with Joe Crowley. Before becoming a lobbyist, Sean Crowley also served as a court-appointed guardian. Kaufman has continued to serve as one, earning around $550,000 from work assigned through the Surrogate’s Court. Notably, Kaufman now faces a state ethics probe for potentially violating court administration rules on compensation. Sweeney also serves as a partner at Sweeney, Reich & Bolz, a law firm formed with two other members of the Queens Democratic Party leadership. The law firm represents banks and other financial institutions in foreclosure proceedings at the Queens Surrogate’s Court — known in the industry as a foreclosure mill — an arrangement that raised conflict of interest concerns. To the extent that political machines have earned legitimacy in the past, it has come through their ability to shower constituents with jobs and services in exchange for remaining in power. That Crowley’s machine instead forecloses on constituents upends that relationship. Leading New York mortgage lenders, according to the Village Voice, have used the Sweeney law firm to process foreclosures for homeowners throughout the Queens area who have fallen behind on mortgage payments following the housing crisis in 2008. Sean, meanwhile, has lobbied on behalf of the New York Creditors Bar Association, a trade group for debt collection attorneys, on state legislative issues.