NEW YORK - A longtime state assemblyman was arrested Wednesday on charges of taking more than $500,000 in illegal payments over the past eight years from entities doing business with the state.

Anthony Seminerio, a 73-year-old Democrat first elected to represent his Queens district in 1978, is accused of creating a bogus consulting firm to hide the payments.

U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said at a news conference that Seminerio “put his office up for sale to those willing to pay the right price.”

Seminerio was released on $500,000 bail. He said nothing to reporters as he left the courthouse with his wife and his lawyer, Ira Cooper.

“He's had a very difficult time,” Cooper said as Seminerio stood beside him in a rumpled suit with his head down. “He's tired. He's exhausted. Please excuse us.”

Prosecutors said the payments came from several entities, including a hospital that gave Seminerio $310,000 to advocate on its behalf with other state legislators.

As part of the probe, an FBI undercover agent posed as a new potential client for Seminerio's consulting firm, Marc Consultants, Garcia said.

In return for $25,000 in payments to the consulting firm, Seminerio arranged for the FBI agent to meet and discuss his legislative proposals and some land development ideas with Assembly and Senate lawmakers, Garcia said.

In a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, FBI agent Julie S. Brown wrote that Seminerio had violated federal and state laws prohibiting public officials from accepting payments in connection with official acts, from working under conflicts of interest and from using their offices to extort illegal payments.

She said as part of the probe, investigators had arranged for a cooperating witness to record conversations with Seminerio, analyzed bank records and obtained court permission to intercept his communications.

If convicted of a count of scheme to defraud the public of honest services, Seminerio could face up to 20 years in prison.