Kerik indictment unsealed
Posted: Friday, November 09, 2007 11:56 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
2008, Giuliani
From NBC’s Pete Williams
In an indictment unsealed today, federal prosecutors accuse Bernard Kerik of illegally accepting favors, while he was a city official, from a company suspected of having mob connections and of failing to report income when he went into private business.
And, surprisingly, he's also accused of lying to federal officials about his past problems when he was being considered for federal appointments -- including for his nomination to be secretary of Homeland Security.
As prosecutors tell it, Kerik felt so squeezed for money that he openly asked for financial help from a private company while he was on the city payroll. In an e-mail, he wrote that he felt like he was on "welfare" and said, "I'm walking on eggshells until this apartment is done."
The indictment says in 1999, while Kerik was running New York's city's corrections department -- under now-presidential candidate
Rudy Giuliani -- he asked for money from an employee of a company suspected of having mob connections. He wanted it for a co-op apartment he was buying. The company paid an architect and designer to renovate it and hired and paid a contractor do to the work -- building new walls, installing a new kitchen and adding new marble bathrooms with a jacuzzi. In all, the company paid more than a quarter of a million dollars on the work.
In return, prosecutors say, Kerik urged city regulators to let the company do business with the city, despite its possible mob connections.
He's also accused of failing to report more than $330,000 in income he received from book and contracting fees, including about $236,000 paid by a real estate developer he hoped to do business with when he left government. That money was for rent on his Upper East Side apartment.
