New Jersey Governor Corzine pays former Turnpike accountant Rocco Riccio another $362k

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine has told the Newark Star Ledger newspaper he has paid a former Turnpike Authority and state Treasury accountant Rocco Riccio $362,500 in a legal settlement. Riccio the brother-in-law of Corzine's then girlfriend Carla Katz is reported to have gained a job at the Turnpike with the Governor's help. He then lost his job there just two weeks later when accusations were made that in his former job in the state Treasury he had perused state tax records of political opponents on behalf of the Governor.

The Star Ledger reports today that the Governor has acknowledged paying $362k to Riccio in late September this year as a legal settlement after the Governor's office leaned on him to resign his job at the Turnpike while promising to help get him an equivalent job in the private sector - at Citicorp.

Corzine in a statement has said: "A person I once considered a friend made meritless claims regarding what he believed to be a promise to help him secure private sector employment. He hired a lawyer and threatened to file a lawsuit against me personally to force an accommodation. To avoid a prolonged and costly court battle, and on the advice of my lawyers, a financial settlement of his legal claims was negotiated and agreed to."

Riccio, 46, says that the Governor forced him out of his job at the Turnpike in January 2007 and that following the publicity surrounding his alleged tax snooping in his earlier job at the state Treasury he was unable to get fulltime work.

In September 2007 Corzine said he gave Riccio $15,000 out of pity for his predicament.

Riccio met then-US Senator Corzine after Riccio married Corzine's then-girlfriend Carla Katz' sister Genise Katz in 2003. Carla Katz arranged a family dinner at a restaurant in Medford to introduce Riccio to Corzine. Riccio was a Republican supporter and former volunteer campaign worker for various state GOP officials. He was won over politically by Corzine and became part of a small group known as Republicans for Corzine.

Riccio said he also worked politically for Corzine thinking it might help him get more senior positions in the state civil service.

The Republicans for Corzine group raised money for Corzine. Riccio says he helped the then senator with political intelligence, telling him the stories Republicans were planting against him. Riccio has had a variety of positions in the state civil service from 1994 in the treasury and department of human services.

Riccio says he resigned from the Turnpike because of a promise "We'll look after you" and because he was told that he would be helped to get a private sector job, specifically with Citicorp and he thought the governor could pull that.

"I was made promises to step down (from the Turnpike that) were never kept. I fell on the sword for the guy (Corzine)," he said in 2007.

Corzine made hundreds of millions as chief executive of Goldman Sachs in the 1990s and has a history of helping friends with gifts of money. The New York Times reported in 2007 that he had given girlfiend Carla Katz $6m, although Corzine said it was less than that.

Katz was president of the Communications Workers of America Local 1034, the largest state civil service union. Corzine and Katz met during Corzine's run for the US Senate in 1999. Corzine divorced in 2003 and between then and about 2005 Katz appeared with Corzine at many social and political events.  Katz was described during that time as Corzine's girlfriend.

Earlier this year Katz and several of her supporters were thrown out of their jobs at the union amid charges they had seriously mishandled union affairs. Locks on the doors of union offices were changed and they were forcibly excluded.

Patronage illegal

Patronage or appointing employees to all but top policy positions based on their political affiliation  has been held by the courts to be illegal under federal law.

See Supreme Court of the United States, 497US62, Rutan vs Republican Party of Illinois, 1990

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0497_0062_ZS.html

http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/88-1872.ZO.html

Patronage in the form of deploying staff for personal benefit may also be held to be self-dealing or fraud.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-11-30