U.S. Attorney District of New Jersey

Bergen County Democratic Cheif Jospeh Ferriero

Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero has collected more than $195,000 in a private fund from donors — including county contractors and public employees — interested in securing his position as the leader of the county party.

Ferriero has maintained and controlled a fund called “Ferriero for County Chairman” since 2004, according to four years of disclosure forms he filed with the Internal Revenue Service last month.

The fund — which is not subject to state campaign disclosure laws because Ferriero is not a publicly elected official — collected tens of thousands in unlimited donations from some of the county’s and state’s biggest professional contractors. They include partners in the Teaneck law firm of DeCotiis Fitzpatrick Cole & Wisler, PMK Group and Neglia Engineering.

Union leader Carla Katz

Federal authorities have opened an investigation of Carla Katz, the ousted leader of New Jersey's largest state worker union and former girlfriend of Gov. Jon Corzine.

The inquiry into her union activities came into public view Tuesday afternoon when federal agents served a subpoena on the national headquarters of the Communications Workers of America in Washington, D.C., according to three people familiar with the subpoena.

Investigators are seeking records connected to Katz's management of Local 1034, the largest state-worker union, said the sources, who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the probe. Authorities are focusing on an internal CWA probe that recently accused Katz of misappropriating union money, the sources said.

United States Attorney Christopher J. Christie

Federal investigators have intensified their investigation of powerful Democratic powerbroker Joseph Ferriero, issuing subpoenas for all documents related to his work for a public authority long criticized for political patronage.

The law firm of Ferriero, who serves as Bergen County Democratic chairman, has earned millions of dollars from the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission since he became its chief counsel in 2002.

Earlier this month, investigators from U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie's office delivered two subpoenas to the commission, which operates one of the country's largest sewage treatment plants. One sought billing records and all other documents pertaining to Scarinci Hollenbeck, the prominent Bergen County law firm in which Ferriero is a partner.

The other demanded all records related to Ferriero and two other entities: a consulting firm he established in 2001 called SVC Consulting LLC, and Vision Media Marketing, a Secaucus-based public relations firm that has a contract with the commission.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

This just in......

Is Union City Mayor Brian Stack the Target of a Federal Criminal Probe????

Unconfirmed reports indicate that Union City Mayor Brian Stack received a letter from US Attorney General Christopher J. Christie advising that the Mayor was a TARGET of a criminal investigtation.....

Repeat, this is an unconfirmed report from a past reliable source.

More to follow....

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Acording to those who attended this past Thursday nights HCDO fundraiser.....  Stack , the "TARGET LETTER" and Stack's replacement were the hot topic of the night.

Unrelated sources are now saying that Stack received the "TARGET LETTER"......

Is it rumor? Is it wishful thinking by Stack's political enemies? 

STATUS: UNCONFIRMED AT THIS TIME

What is a Target Letter and what does it mean????

The crimes have been outrageous -- like the Port Authority commissioner who admitted trying to silence a witness by setting him up with a prostitute and secretly taping their tryst. Or the judge who traveled to Russia to film himself having sex with a teenage boy.

They've also been mundane, like the MVC workers who ran their own driver's license mill.

But the list of government officials and employees arrested by federal agents in New Jersey the past several years shows a spectrum of public servants -- from state senators to building inspectors -- who authorities said were eager to sell their offices for cash.

For U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie, it's a never-ending well.

"Our approach is that there really is no act of corruption too small," said Christie, in an interview with The Record.

A top Hudson County legislator, already the focus of an ongoing federal corruption probe, has come into the cross hairs of a separate state criminal investigation involving a publicly subsidized day care program operated by his wife.

The Attorney General's office subpoenaed records in connection with $200,000 in state funding earmarked by the Legislature for the child care facility in Union City, where Assemblyman Brian Stack (D-Hudson) also serves as mayor.

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie also is examining those grants as part of his own investigation of nearly $1 billion in so-called "Christmas tree" items approved by the Legislature during the past three years.

The federal investigation of the state's secretive budget process reached into the governor's office yesterday, as prosecutors subpoenaed three years of records involving nearly $1 billion in special interest grants.

The subpoenas, covering the administrations of three governors, sought budget records, computer files, reports and letters to determine what the state's top elected officials knew about the so-called "Christmas tree" awards.

The expanding inquiry, which had been focused on one influential senator who headed the powerful appropriations committee, is now looking at other lawmakers as well, including a Hudson County assemblyman whose estranged wife received a $100,000 state grant for a day care center she operates, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation.

Let us pause to rejoice. Because Democrats in the Legislature are finally right where they belong -- standing against a wall with their feet spread while the FBI searches their pockets. They are in trouble now. And they deserve it.

The problem is that they got greedy. Every year at budget time, legislative leaders meet behind closed doors to divvy up millions of dollars for their pet projects.

New Jersey legislative officials were hit with a volley of federal subpoenas yesterday, in a rapidly expanding corruption investigation into the Statehouse by U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie.

The subpoenas were served on both the Democratic and Republican leadership in the Senate and the Assembly -- seeking information on how millions in public funds were handed out over the last three years.

It was the latest development in a federal probe that began last April with an investigation into state Sen. Wayne Bryant (D-Camden), who was accused by a federal monitor of using his position to steer funding to the state's medical university after he received a "no-work" job there. The matter has now expanded into an inquiry into how lawmakers divvy up public funds.

TRENTON — Lawyers for the U.S. Attorney's Office and [NJ] state Office of Legislative Services said nothing publicly Wednesday after a closed-door, 80-minute hearing before a federal judge about a subpoena that the OLS is reportedly blocking.

The two sides met before U.S. District Judge Mary Cooper concerning a subpoena related to a grand jury investigation of whether lawmakers used their positions to illegally steer state grants to entities for personal or political profit. The probe began as an examination of state Sen. Wayne Bryant, D-Camden, but could include others.

Three groups of lawyers representing different interests left the room seemingly bound by court order to keep the grand-jury proceeding sealed.