Ralph J. Marra, Jr., acting U.S. Attorney answers questions at a press conference in Newark addressing the federal investigation of public corruption in which 44 individuals were charged July 23, 2009.
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L. Harvey Smith, 60, state Assemblyman, a Jersey City mayoral candidate and former three-term councilman in Jersey City and a Hudson County undersheriff. Smith took two cash payments, one for $5,000, the other for $10,000, in exchange for approaching high-level contacts with the state Department of Transportation and Department of Environmental Protection to clear the way for approvals of the cooperating witness's project on Garfield Avenue in Jersey City and another project off Route 440 in Bayonne. Smith's aide, Richard Greene, is charged in the same criminal Complaint, and is accused of  taking the $5,000 payment from the cooperating witness and passing
it to Smith.  Read the criminal complaint

Additional Indictments   


  

 

Indicted Officials


August 26, 2009... Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone and his wife were indicted today for depositing state paychecks for legislative workers into their personal bank accounts and  Chiappone's 2005 campaign fund.   The seven-count indictment includes charges of conspiracy, official misconduct, theft by deception, tampering with public records, falsifying records and concealment of campaign contributions
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List of Indicted and convicted Hudson County Politicians  beginning in 2002

  

   New Jersey mayors arrested in the federal corruption probe include from left, Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell and Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano on July 23, 2009.

 

In all, 44 people were charged, 29 of them from New Jersey

By the end of the day, Joe Doria Jr., the Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs, abruptly resigned from his cabinet post after his Trenton office and his home in Bayonne were searched by the FBI

Peter Cammarano III, 32, previously a Hoboken councilman and now mayor, and a lawyer specializing in election law. While a candidate for mayor, then-councilman Cammarano and his close associate, Michael Schaffer, a commissioner on the North Hudson Utilities Authority, took three payments of $5,000 each with the promise that, in return, Cammarano would sponsor zoning changes and push through building plans for high-rise development in Hoboken by the cooperating witness. After the conclusion of their first meeting at a Hoboken diner, the cooperating witness stated, "Make sure you get my stuff expedited." To which Cammarano replied: "I promise you ... you're gonna be treated like a friend." Moments later, in the parking lot, Schaffer took the first $5,000 in cash. On July 16, Cammarano and Schaffer met the cooperating witness again at a Hoboken diner and accepted another $10,000, which Cammarano said was needed to pay campaign debts, bringing the total in bribes accepted by Cammarano and Schaffer to $25,000. Read the criminal complaint

Dennis Elwell, 64, Mayor of Secaucus, and Ronald Manzo (Manzo is charged in this Complaint in addition to the one with his brother Louis). Elwell received a $10,000 cash bribe - through Manzo as the middleman - to assist the cooperating witness with plans to build a hotel in Secaucus. Manzo took $5,000 from the cooperating witness as a reward for bringing Elwell to him. Read the criminal complaint

    

Leona Beldini, 74, deputy mayor of Jersey City and a realtor. Beldini planned to become
  broker for his purported 750-unit condominium project on Garfield Avenue, where units would sell for   $500,000 each.  Beldini, who was treasurer of a Jersey City official's reelection campaign (that official is identified only as Jersey City Official 4 in the Complaints-  mayor Jerramiah Healy), also accepted $20,000 in campaign donations, which she said would be divided between "donors" who would return the money to the campaign in increments of $2,600, the maximum individual donation allowed under law.

  

  

 

 


 

  

 

 

 

 

  

 
Mariano Vega, Jr., 60, the Jersey City council president. He met several times with the cooperating witness and ultimately accepted three $10,000 payments, two of which Vega instructed an intermediary to have broken down and converted into individual contributions for his re-election campaign and the third which he received after his election victory. Read the criminal complaint
   Louis Manzo, 54, a defeated candidate for Jersey City mayor, and his brother and political advisor, Ronald. Together, they accepted $27,500 in three cash payments intended for Louis Manzo's campaign. The cooperating witness was told that giving money to Louis Manzo was "insurance" to secure his influence for the cooperating witness in the event the incumbent for mayor lost.
    Read the criminal complaint
More Indictments...
JC Employees Indicted
Nidia Lopez