Panel Says D’Amato Acted Improperly : Ethics: Senate committee imposes no punishment on the New York lawmaker, who allowed his brother to use his office for lobbying.

The Senate Ethics Committee unanimously concluded Friday that Sen. Alfonse D’Amato acted “in an improper and inappropriate manner” by allowing his brother to use his office on behalf of a defense contractor.

The committee handed out no other punishment with the rebuke and dismissed more than a dozen additional allegations against the New York Republican. The case was closed after a 19-month investigation.

The committee’s vice chairman, Sen. Warren Rudman (R-N.H.), called the finding on use of D’Amato’s office “a fairly strong statement . . . as strong as I recall in this committee. . . .”

But Rudman also said a dozen of the allegations against D’Amato were “absolutely frivolous.”

The original complaint against D’Amato was filed by the man who ran against him in 1986, Mark Green. Green accused D’Amato of acting improperly to steer federal aid to friends, relatives and contributors.

An emotional D’Amato admitted in a news conference that his brother, Armand, twice got Senate aides to write letters on behalf of Unisys--a Long Island defense contractor--using the senator’s stationery and signature.

But the senator said he did not know about his brother’s use of the office or even that he was representing Unisys. At least one letter was to the Pentagon to check on the status of a contract, D’Amato said.

D’Amato said his brother had exercised bad judgment in representing the contractor, adding that the company also had acted improperly.

But he added: “I’m the boss” in the Senate office and should have known about the letters. He said he told his brother never to try to use the Senate office again in lobbying activities.

The committee concluded that no Senate rule or federal law was violated in the Unisys matter or any other allegation.

D’Amato, his voice at times choked with emotion, admitted that he had lacked sensitivity to the appearances some of his actions had generated and said, “I am certainly chastened by it.”

But he also said his actions had been proper. “It is ironic that I have been attacked for what I am proudest of, and that’s being a fighter for the people of New York,” D’Amato told reporters.

The committee said it could not fully investigate an allegation that D’Amato helped steer Housing and Urban Development low-income housing subsidies to Puerto Rico--and at the same time received contributions from developers there.

The committee said it could not act because of the unavailability of witnesses who were subjects of grand jury investigations. They all had asserted their Fifth Amendment privileges.