Ex-New York Police Com-missioner Bernard Kerik will likely face new federal charges, some linked to a meeting at Walker’s, a bar in Tribeca in lower Manhattan, New York, allegedly attended by Kerik and city officials, the New York Daily News reported on Friday.
The newspaper said that Kerik’s legal problem is about to get worse with federal prosecutors expected to file charges against him that will likely include allegations of bribery, tax fraud and obstruction of justice.
Kerik had been given a contract by the Guyana Government to advise President Bharrat Jagdeo on security matters but pulled out of it after investigations of his dealings intensified in New York. The government’s engagement with Kerik had been strongly criticized here because of his previous legal problems but President Jagdeo insisted that he would be hired.
The New York Daily News stated that the indictment is expected next month and it could prove to be an embarrassing obstacle for Kerik’s former mentor Rudy Giuliani who is cruising at the top of the polls heading into the presidential primary gauntlet.
According to the report the bribery allegations against Kerik stem from a secret meeting at a bar in Tribeca, two sources familiar with the federal probe told the newspaper.
Kerik’s lawyers recently agreed to waive the statute of limitations on the tax charges until November 17, which will allow them to make one last plea to try to ease the pain.
It was stated that he will go to the Justice Department in Washington in the coming weeks to try to get expected criminal tax charges reduced to civil fines.
Meanwhile, witnesses have been appearing before a grand jury in White Plains, New York, several sources told the newspaper.
Last spring, Kerik turned down a deal to plead guilty to tax charges. Since then the probe has expanded to include other charges, the sources have said and this new indictment will have direct implications for Giuliani, the sources further said.
Another Giuliani commissioner and a top inspector general during Giuliani’s years as mayor will be called as witnesses to describe the secret meeting in Tribeca.
The Giuliani officials are Raymond Casey, former head of the Trade Waste Commission, a city agency set up to keep the mob out of the carting industry, and Michael Caruso, former inspector general with the city Department of Investigation.
In July 1999, Casey and Caruso met with Kerik, then the city’s Correction Department Commissioner, at Walker’s bar on North Moore St., court papers disclosed.
At the time, Casey was investigating Interstate Industrial Corp., a company that employed Kerik’s brother Donald and the best man at Kerik’s wedding, Larry Ray.
An Interstate affiliate had applied to operate a waste transfer station in Staten Island, and Casey was looking into allegations that the firm had ties to the Gambino crime family. During the meeting, both Interstate and Ray were discussed, according to an affidavit filed in a civil suit by Caruso’s lawyer, Mark Freyberg.
Kerik has admitted that at the time Interstate was secretly paying to renovate his Bronx apartment. Prosecutors are now expected to allege that the free renovations amounted to Kerik accepting bribes, the sources said. In return for the renovations, the feds will allege that Kerik used his city position to try to influence the city’s probe of Interstate, the sources said. During the Walker’s meeting, Kerik allegedly told Casey that he did not see the allegations concerning Interstate’s ties to the mob as credible, according to a source familiar with the case.
Kerik reportedly noted that his brother worked for the company, and said, “If I thought Interstate was mobbed up, do you think I’d let my brother work there?” according to the source.
Kerik reportedly also urged Casey to complete his probe and either reject or accept the application – but either way, to do it expeditiously, the source said. Years later, the agency recommended denying Interstate the licence.
Last year, Kerik pleaded guilty to two misdemeanour charges brought by the Bronx district attorney in connection with receiving payments totalling US$165,000 from Interstate, but he was not charged with bribery. The expected obstruction of justice charges from the feds are related to Kerik’s statements to Bronx prosecutors, the sources told the Daily News. The expected federal tax fraud charges are linked to Kerik’s failure to pay taxes on the income he received from Interstate, the sources added.
Earlier this year Kerik was forced to pull out of a US$100,000 ($20M) consultancy contract as security advisor to President Jagdeo because of the charges he may soon face in the US.
“[Kerik] said he doesn’t want the country to be tainted,” Jagdeo revealed at a press conference on April 11 this year, adding that similar reasons were given for his decision to put off his involvement in Trinidad and Tobago.
As a result, Kerik had revealed too that he would not be returning to Trinidad until the investigations against him are dealt with. He also said he did not want his presence to lead to criticism of the opposition United National Congress, which had contracted his services to help deal with the country’s high crime rate.
President Jagdeo said Kerik had maintained his innocence of the charges, but he desired to protect his clients from the likely fallout. “He said `this will all go away,'” Jagdeo reported, before explaining that “he would withdraw from the contract until the matter is resolved.”
The President, however, had assured that Kerik’s decision would not affect the country’s police reform process. Additionally, he had said there are components funded by the country and the IDB that were not contingent upon Kerik’s involvement.
Kerik was hired because of his experience as New York City Police Commissioner and the work of his security firm, the Kerik Group, which has held a number of security contracts in Jordan, Iraq and other Middle East hotspots.
But his hiring met with heavy criticisms here in light of the long-standing allegations about his conduct during his tenure as New York City police commissioner. Prior to the formal hiring by the President there had been intense criticism of the move and appeals not to involve Kerik in the reform of the police force because of his own legal problems and questions over his conduct.
The parliamentary opposition parties – the PNCR-1G, AFC and GAP-ROAR – have recorded their objections to the hiring, and PNCR-1G MP Deborah Backer had called for the termination of the contract.
Kerik was President George W. Bush’s nominee for Secretary of Homeland Security, but he withdrew his name from consideration for failing to pay social security taxes for his nanny.
