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Federal jury convicts Beldini on 2 bribery counts; she'll lose deputy mayor job, faces years in prison
- 2-12-2010
- Categorized in: U.S. Attorney District of New Jersey, US Attorney General Convictions
Federal jury convicts Beldini on 2 bribery counts; she'll lose deputy mayor job, faces years in prison
February 12, 2010 Jersey Journal
A federal jury yesterday convicted suspended Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini of taking $20,000 in bribes that prosecutors say she funneled into Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy's re-election campaign last year.
The 74-year-old Realtor and former burlesque queen showed no reaction as the jury foreman read the verdict convicting her on two of the six counts, but her daughter Bianca slumped in her seat in the packed courtroom yesterday afternoon.
Beldini is the first person to be convicted as a result of work done by FBI informant Solomon Dwek, who surreptitiously made audio and video recordings that resulted in 46 arrests last July, following a months-long probe into money laundering and corruption in New York and New Jersey.
"Every case like this that we bring is designed to send a message. And the message is that public service is about something other than enriching yourself and enriching your friends and your colleagues," said U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman, who called the verdict a victory.
Beldini faces up to 10 years in prison for each count and a maximum fine of $500,000. She is to be sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Jose Linares at 10 a.m. on June 1.
Dwek was the key witness in the nine-day trial that featured recordings he made of meetings between Beldini, Healy, Dwek and Edward Cheatam and Jack Shaw.
At trial, Dwek testified that he gave the $20,000 to Cheatam and Shaw to be broken down into checks by straw donors and contributed to the Jersey City Democratic Committee and the Healy for Mayor 2009 campaign.
The informant said Beldini, who was treasurer of the campaign account, accepted the money in exchange for a promise of her official help in expediting approvals for a development project on Garfield Avenue invented as part of the sting.
Shaw, a political consultant, died of a valium overdose a few days after his arrest in July. Cheatam, a former Jersey City Board of Education vice president and former Hudson County affirmative action officer, has pleaded guilty. He was expected to testify for the government in Beldini's trial, but was never called.
The eight-man, four-woman jury found that Beldini accepted a $10,000 bribe from Dwek on March 26, 2009 and another $10,000 on May 5, 2009. Healy has not been charged.
Beldini was found not guilty of conspiracy to commit extortion under the color of official right, two counts of attempted extortion under color of official right and one count of acceptance of things of value to influence and reward - namely real estate commissions from the Garfield Avenue project.
Beldini will be forced to forfeit her position as deputy mayor as a result of the conviction and she will be barred from holding any public position, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said last night.
Dwek began cooperating with the FBI after he was charged in a $50 million bank fraud in 2006. His cooperation helped net five rabbis, three mayors, two state assemblymen and one man accused of conspiring to sell a kidney on the black-market. Dwek has pleaded guilty, but has not been sentenced.
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