Lets goto the tapes!  FBI releases video tapes at Beldini trail

By Ed Mecka
January 29, 2009

As the Federal corruption trail of Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini progressed, the FBI released several undercover video tapes made by government informant SOLOMON DEWK.

"Caught on tape" were Leona Beldini, Edward Cheatam, Jack Shaw, and Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy.

Beldini is accused of accepting $20,000 from Dwek in the form of illegal campaign contributions to Healy. Beldini faces up to 20 years in prison

 Edward Cheatam:

Edward Cheatam was arrested on July 24, 2009 and served as the Hudson County affirmative action officer and Jersey City Board of Education vice president.

On August 20, 2009, Cheatam was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury and was charged in a one-count Indictment with conspiring to extort corrupt cash payments, illicit political contributions and other benefits under color of official right.

On September 18, 2009, Cheatam pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right, which carries a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.  (Cheatam pleaded guilty to the sole count in an indictment returned on Aug. 20 that named him and Beldini.)

During his guilty plea, Cheatam implicated Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini. Cheatam said Beldini agreed to accept illicit political contributions and other benefits, including an agreement to serve as the real estate broker for one of the cooperating witness’s development projects in Jersey City, in exchange for her and another’s official action favoring the cooperating witness.

Cheatam said that Beldini was one of numerous public officials and candidates for public office to whom Cheatam introduced the cooperating witness. Like Beldini, according to Cheatam, these officials and candidates agreed to accept corrupt payments and, in some cases, illicit political contributions in exchange for agreeing to exercise official influence and action in favor of the cooperating witness’s purported development projects. Among the officials and candidates Cheatam said he introduced to the cooperating witness in furtherance of the corrupt activity were: New Jersey Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith; Jersey City mayoral candidate Louis Manzo and his brother Ronald; then-Hoboken mayoral candidate Peter Cammarano and North Hudson Utilities Authority Commissioner Michael Shaffer; Jersey City Council candidates Lavern Webb-Washington, Lori Serrano and Jimmy King; and Secaucus Mayor Dennis Ellwell.  (Source: Cheatam News Release )

Jack Shaw:

Jack Shaw, a political consultant, was arrested on July 24, 2009 and charged with taking $10,000 from Solomon Dwek, an FBI informant posing as a real estate developer, and proposing Dwek make another $10,000 payment to a Jersey City official.  Days after his arrest, Shaw was found dead in his Jersey City residence. 

On January 5, 2009, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio released the long awaited autopsy report revealing that Shaw died from an overdose of Valium.

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy:

Mayor Jerramiah Healy was not arrested or charged with any crime. But the tapes show that he did meet with the FBI cooperating witness SOLOMON DWEK while in the company of others who were subsequently arrested.

Let's goto the tapes!

March 13, 2009
Video Clip 2 - TRANSCRIPT
FBI cooperating witness SOLOMON DWEK meets with:
 JERRAMIAH HEALY
JACK SHAW
LEONA BELDINI

March 13, 2009
Video Clip 9 - TRANSCRIPT
FBI cooperating witness SOLOMON DWEK meets with:
JACK SHAW
EDWARD CHEATAM

March 24, 2009
Video Clip # - TRANSCRIPT
FBI cooperating witness SOLOMON DWEK meets with:
 LEONA BELDINI
EDWARD CHEATAM
JACK SHAW