NEW YORK, Dec 20 (Reuters) - New York State Senator Carl Kruger admitted during a court hearing Tuesday to taking part in a pay-to-play scheme in which he doled out political favors in exchange for nearly half a million dollars in bribes from real-estate, health-care and beverage-industry interests.

An eight-term Democrat from Brooklyn, Kruger, 62, resigned from office Tuesday morning prior to the hearing.

At the hearing Tuesday afternoon before U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan federal court, Kruger pleaded guilty to four counts of conspiring to commit fraud and take bribes. Kruger faced immediate expulsion from the state senate, but chose instead to formally resign the seat he has held since 1994, in a letter he sent Tuesday morning to New York Senate leaders.

As he addressed the court, Kruger broke down in tears while describing a scheme to "undertake action" on behalf of individuals and entities who paid him thousands of dollars in bribes.

"My actions were in violation of the law," Kruger said. "I accept responsibility for my actions and am truly sorry for my conduct."

"With Senator Kruger's guilty plea today, yet another lawmaker-turned-lawbreaker has been removed from an undeserved position of power in Albany," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

Kruger faces a maximum of 50 years in prison when he is sentenced on April 24, 2012. But under the terms of the plea deal, prosecutors will recommend that he receive between 9 and 11 years.

"We are hopeful that when sentencing Mr. Kruger, Judge Rakoff will consider not only the conduct Mr. Kruger has today acknowledged, but will also note and consider his many years of devotion to the thousands of constituents Mr. Kruger has honestly served during a lifetime of public and community services, which although obviously flawed, is still nevertheless on balance, quite extraordinary," Kruger's attorney Benjamin Brafman said in a statement following the hearing.

'WEB OF GRAFT AND CORRUPTION'

One of Kruger's co-defendants, Manhattan-based gynecologist Michael Turano, 50, also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to take bribes. He faces up to 5 years in prison and will be sentenced at the same time as Kruger.

Kruger and Turano were among eight individuals charged earlier this year in connection with a wide-ranging scheme that FBI assistant director-in-charge Janice Fedarcyk called a "web of graft and corruption."

According to the complaint, between 2007 and 2011 Kruger received a stream of bribes from lobbyists, developers and industry consultants. In exchange for the payments, Kruger lobbied other elected officials, influenced the awarding of millions of dollars in state development funds and took other official actions to help benefit the bribers, prosecutors said.

Turano helped launder the corrupt payments through two shell companies for Kruger, who had an "intimate relationship" with the Turano family, prosecutors said in their original complaint. Turano used the laundered money to pay a lease on a Bentley automobile, credit-card bills and a mortgage on a multi-million-dollar home that Turano shared with his mother and brother, according to the complaint.

One of the individuals who sought to bribe Kruger was ex-MediSys CEO David Rosen, who prosecutors said was hoping to curry favor in connection with MediSys' attempts to acquire several health-care centers around New York, prosecutors said. Rosen was convicted of conspiring to bribe Kruger and two other state lawmakers, Assemblymen William Boyland Jr and Anthony Seminerio.

Boyland was acquitted by a Manhattan federal jury of bribery charges in November, but was charged less than three weeks later in a separate bribery scheme by Brooklyn federal prosecutors. Seminerio, who pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced in 2010 to six years in prison, died while incarcerated in January.

The case is United States v. Rosen, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, no. 11-648.

For the United States: Assistant U.S. Attorneys Glen McGorty, William Harrington and Michael Bosworth.

For Kruger: Benjamin Brafman, Joshua Kirshner and Karen Newirth of Brafman & Associates.

For Turano: Robert Katzberg of Kaplan & Katzberg.

(Reporting by Jessica Dye)

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