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State Senator Carl Kruger, who is never shy about speaking his mind, kept mum about his dealings with arrested restauranteur Michael Levitis.

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State Sen. Carl Kruger clammed up this week when asked about federal charges levied against a local restaurateur who’s donated thousands of dollars and held fund-raisers for the embattled pol.

The FBI’s suspect, Michael Levitis, a longtime supporter of Kruger (D—Sheepshead Bay) and manager of Rasputin’s Supper Club on Coney Island Avenue at Avenue X, was arrested Thursday for lying to investigators about discussions he had with another eatery owner on how Kruger could fix troubles with the State Liquor Authority if he donated money Kruger’s campaign and held a fund-raiser for the incumbent.

When reached by us, both Kruger and his chief of staff, Jason Koppel, — who have hired lawyers to help deal with the sticky situation — refused to speak about their dealings with Levitis, instead choosing to stand behind a State Senate spokesperson’s brief comment.

“Sometimes unscrupulous individuals falsely claim a close relationship to public officials which simply does not exist,” said Austin Shafran, a spokesman for New York State Senate Democratic Conference.

And that’s all Kruger was willing to say.

“That’s the statement,” said Kruger, when we reached him by phone. “That’s it.”

Attorney Benjamin Brafman, who is representing Kruger, told reporters Levitis never spoke to the senator and had dropped the legislator’s name to forward his own agenda.

“It is very clear that Levitis was playing the role of a big shot who claimed to have access to public officials,” Brafman said.

Yet for all the distance Kruger wants to put between himself and Levitis, he once had a very satisfying and lucrative relationship with the restaurateur, pocketing more than $8,000 in contributions and fund-raising services from him since 2006, according to Board of Elections campaign filings. The filings also show that Rasputin’s Supper Club held two fund-raisers for Kruger over the last four years.

FBI papers say Levitis’s plan was to pocket money off the top of a campaign contribution he recommended a fellow restaurateur make to Kruger. In turn, Kruger would make the eatery owner’s problems with state government go away, he alleged.

“To start off, you have to throw in a few thousand,” Levitis explained during a conversation on April 14, 2009. “[It] depends on whether the problem is big or small. How much work he has to put in.”

Federal officials said Levitis tried to direct the other restaurateur, who was acting as a confidential informant, to Koppel.

He agreed to funnel $2,000 to Koppel from the restaurateur, taking an additional $1,000 for brokering the deal, according to prosecutors.

A few months later, on Sept. 18, 2009, Levitis contacted the undercover restaurateur again, claiming his hearing with the State Liquor Authority was postponed for two weeks.

“So for now you can still work,” Levitis explained. “He asked that you do a fund raiser. I said ‘Help first.’ But he does want you to do a fund raiser.”

Levitis was arrested after denying the conversation with the informant took place, even though investigators had recorded every shady word.

With help from Levitis and many others, Kruger now has $2.1 million for his re-election war chest.

But there may now be some collateral damage attached to that hefty sum.

Levitis’ attorney Jeffrey Lichtman claims the 32-year-old restaurant manager fell on his sword protecting Kruger by lying to federal investigators about their relationship.

“[Kruger’s] an ungrateful pig,” Lichtman said Friday. “You would think that when he woke up this morning and found that my client refused to cooperate, he would have been happy. Instead he acted like the typical selfish, greedy, corrupt Albany politician he is and threw Michael under the bus.”

Levitis was released from Federal custody on $500,000 bond. If convicted of lying to federal investigators, he faces five years in prison.

According to a state spokesman, no one from Kruger’s office had contacted the State Liquor Authority on Levitis’s or the federal informants’ behalf.

©2010 Community Newspaper Group