Posted on 08/18/2004 4:03:14 AM PDT by Liz
TRENTON, Aug. 17 - A New Jersey developer who is one of the nation's top Democratic campaign contributors is scheduled to plead guilty to criminal charges on Wednesday morning in a case in which he is accused of hiring a prostitute to blackmail a witness in a federal investigation in an attempt to silence him, according to lawyers involved in the case.
The developer, Charles Kushner, has agreed to plead to one charge of witness retaliation in addition to campaign finance and tax charges in a deal that will result in a prison sentence of 18 to 24 months, the lawyers said.
Mr. Kushner became the subject of a federal investigation after his brother and former accountant reported what they said were accounting irregularities within his billion-dollar real estate empire and accused him of intentionally evading federal limits on campaign contributions.
On July 13, the United States attorney charged that Mr. Kushner tried to silence a witness in the case, his brother-in-law William Schulder, by hiring a prostitute to seduce him and videotape their sexual encounter. Mr. Kushner then sent a copy of the tape to his sister, Mr. Schulder's wife, Esther.
The plea deal reportedly will not require Mr. Kushner, who gave more than $1 million to James E. McGreevey's campaign for governor, to cooperate with any of the various corruption investigations involving Mr. McGreevey's aides.
Mr. McGreevey announced last week that he would resign on Nov 15, after revealing that he had had an extramarital affair with a man, but the United States attorney, Christopher J. Christie, has said that the governor is not involved in the inquiry involving Mr. Kushner.
Mr. Kushner's lawyer, Ben Brafman, declined to discuss the case.
Mr. Kushner, 50, is a well-known figure in New Jersey and in Democratic political circles. He has been a benefactor to a variety of Jewish causes, and has contributed generously to many prominent elected officials besides Governor McGreevey, including Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton, Charles E. Schumer and Jon S. Corzine; former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and former Senators Bill Bradley and Robert G. Torricelli.
In June, Mr. Kushner agreed to pay a $508,900 fine to the Federal Election Commission to settle a complaint that he had used the names of employees in his 40 different partnerships to illegally funnel more than $500,000 to political candidates between 1997 and 2000.
In the plea agreement that will be entered before Judge Jose L. Linares in Federal District Court on Wednesday, Mr. Kushner will acknowledge that he misled the Federal Election Commission by filing letters claiming that those contributions were made by his employees. The plea deal also calls for Mr. Kushner to admit that he defrauded the Internal Revenue Service by listing charitable contributions as business expenses, and for him to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes.
Jason George and Laura Mansnerus contributed reporting for this article.
A corrupt Dumbocrat going to jail. That's a novelty. They should lock this guy up and throw away the key.
Kushner listed charitable expenses as business expenses? (snort) That's an oldie. The creep Kushner gives away money to "charity" and cheats the IRS then he's sanctified as a "philanthropist" and we, the people, get the bill in higher taxes.
And BTW, Charlie, didn't you also promote prostitution by pimping Cipel the Israeli (smirk) "sailor" for Gov Hotpants McGreevey?
I guess that the Klintonites have not yet figured out that things have changed since Ol Zipper split DC.
It's disgusting to think Clintonoid connivers like this scam artist Kushner are all over the nation posing as "loyal (gag) Americans" and screwing us and the nation bigtime.
(Snort) We'll find out-----much, much later---- what this creep Kushner did to save his filthy rump.
The timing is suspicious. IMHO, McGreevey will throw in the towel today.
How come the NY Times published this story?
Where did you find it - buried in the sports section?
What is more disgusting is the numbers of people who believe this crap and do not have the ability to discern the truth for themselves.
The Democrats will keep them down on the farm as long as they can. Keep them uneducated and marching in lockstep to the "Slavemasters"!
He has money.
Yeah, that is strange. I'm surprised it wasn't in the "entertainment" section (snort).
Sure looks like Kushner's saving his filthy a** with a plea deal is connected to McG's resignation.
18-24 months because it "was just about sex" you know. The fact that the guy sent the tape to his sister shows how vile he is.
I believe he was also considering sending it to his sister's son, as well, at one point.
You don't get lower than this guy.
bump
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