Posted on 08/14/2005 11:52:03 AM PDT by Liz
Jon Corzine is the business genius with a personal fortune in the hundreds of millions.
Now he's the front-runner in the race for governor and his skills with the checkbook are being questioned.
The savvy bond trader has admitted he made some business loans - totaling as much as a million dollars -that never panned out. One of the beneficiaries filed for bankruptcy and owes nearly $100,000 in back taxes, earning her a spot as one of New Jersey's top debtors.
Corzine gave his former girlfriend a $470,000 gift so she could repay the debt on her home, which sold for a little more than $360,000. She's a union leader who pushed to endorse him in two elections and represents the largest state workers union.
He also handed $837,000 to a South Jersey political boss who then dished that cash out across the state. Now there's a law to ban what happened, and Corzine is being forced to distance himself from the political warlord, who was caught on tape bragging about his influence with the senator.
Some officials in Corzine's Democratic Party are privately questioning his political acumen. They say the loans depict him as naïve and blind to the potential of political fallout.
"It's the appearance of these things that he doesn't understand," said Nick Accocella, a publisher of Politifax, a newsletter that tracks New Jersey politics. "And in politics, appearance means everything."
Corzine burst onto the political scene using his biggest asset: massive wealth. That investment has yielded him a network of party supporters, statewide name recognition and a seat in the U.S. Senate.
Now that once-powerful asset is in danger of becoming a campaign liability in his run for governor, as his personal loans and donations to politically powerful churches come under intense criticism. GOP opponents say Corzine's wealth makes him far from an independent reformer, but just another Democrat with cozy relations with big donors, unions and political bosses.
Corzine admits some of his decisions can be second-guessed.
"If I looked at everything I've done in my life, I probably could have always made choices that would have had less controversy," he said in an interview last week. "Everyone has a full life. I think it's important that everyone have a private life. I'm going to try to make sure I have a clear separation between my public life and private life."
Loan to ex-girlfriend
The 10-year, no-interest loan to a former girlfriend, union leader Carla Katz, raised questions whether Corzine would be able to impartially negotiate state worker contracts once elected governor.
But Corzine also has disclosed two other six-figure personal loans since he entered politics, neither of which turned out to be successful investments. He has described both recipients as acquaintances and said he did not collect on either of the loans.
In 2000, the year he ran for Senate, Corzine reported making a loan of between $250,000 and $500,000 to Avis Yates, a politically active Somerset County entrepreneur who has been associated with a series of technology ventures. She has been involved with several groups focused on minorities and women in business, and was a delegate to a White House Conference on Small Business in 1995.
Yates had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1996, according to records, which also show more than a dozen state and federal tax liens filed against her between 1990 and this year. According to state Treasury records, Yates is liable for just under $100,000 in sales taxes and employee withholding taxes related to her business, PC Pros. The company itself owes roughly $45,000 in corporate taxes.
Corzine has described the loan as a business investment that he wrote off because it was "unsuccessful." Yates did not return calls seeking comment.
The senator believed Yates' efforts to establish a minority-owned technology business were a "good cause," Corzine campaign manager Tom Shea said.
In 2001, Corzine made another loan in the same range to Diane Kessenich, who heads Winslow Press, a Manhattan-based publisher that supplements its children's books with Web site materials. Kessenich's company entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy the following year, reorganized and continues to do business.
Corzine said the Kessenich debt became the property of his ex-wife upon their divorce in 2003. Kessenich, of Long Island, did not return calls seeking comment. Kessenich's late husband was a Citicorp executive who knew Corzine from his days on Wall Street.
$1M to a church
Donations through Corzine's charitable foundation have also been questioned. When a group of influential black ministers endorsed Corzine over former Gov. Jim Florio in the 2000 Democratic primary for Senate, a reporter asked if they had received any money from the candidate. One of the group's most prominent ministers, the Rev. Calvin McKinney of Calvary Baptist Church in Garfield, chastised the press for being so bold as to raise the question.
After reports showed that Corzine's foundation had indeed given $25,000 to the church of the group's leader, the Rev. Reginald Jackson, McKinney was quoted as saying he was angry that Corzine and Jackson kept mum while he waxed indignant.
In 2003, Corzine's foundation gave McKinney's church $1 million and loaned him another $800,000. That year, at a ceremony that Corzine attended, McKinney broke ground on a new church designed to hold 10 times as many worshipers as his old building. McKinney did not return calls seeking comment.
"I think Jon Corzine, because he's been blessed so abundantly, that he has a commitment that to who much has been given much is required," said Jackson, pastor of St. Matthew A.M.E. Church in Orange. "If you look at it, his giving has benefited others much more than it's benefited him."
The former Goldman Sachs chairman has been a philanthropist since he became wealthy, Shea said. Some of his gifts have gone to politically connected people in recent years only because he has met more people in those circles.
"The larger trend is that Jon Corzine has always been generous with his money," Shea said.
"He actually believes people who have been as fortunate as he's been in life have a responsibility and an obligation to help other people."
But one Democratic Party official expressed concern that these gifts could cause perception problems, which could haunt Corzine on the campaign trail. "I don't think it was his intention, but it could be perceived that he is trying to buy votes,'' the official said.
From the beginning of his political life in 1999 to late last year, Corzine gave $3.7 million to New Jersey Democrats. That includes $837,000 to a PAC controlled by South Jersey power broker George Norcross, who redistributed the money to county committees and candidates during the 2001 campaign.
Corzine originally gave $1,087,000 to the PAC, but some of the money was returned. Lawmakers later dramatically reduced the limits on contributions to PACs and some called it "Corzine's law," another potential embarrassment for the candidate.
Other campaign contributions have come under scrutiny. Last year, Corzine gave $37,000 to the Bergen County Democratic Committee, the maximum amount allowed under the law. But Corzine's elderly mother in Illinois gave the committee a check for the same amount about a week later, raising accusations by political opponents that he was trying to skirt the campaign contribution limits.
Some Democrats say Corzine showed his inexperience in making some of those donations. "He was just learning the system then and he came from a world where you write checks," said one Democratic operative familiar with the 2000 campaign.
Corzine promised to back Democrats across the state and he did, party officials said. But there were political consequences he might not have foreseen.
"I think Jon Corzine is a very thoughtful person who knows what he's doing," said state Sen. Raymond Lesniak, the powerful Union County Democrat. "Sometimes in politics you support people who it turns out maybe you shouldn't support. It happens, that's politics. Jon certainly jumped into politics with both feet. He splashed around a little bit." 6747629
What an elected individual does in private is more important that what he does in public, since what he does when he thinks no one is looking is the true test of a person's character.
the citizens of NJ are themselves so corrupt, that his corruption wont effect the outcome of the election
Corzine? Character? You must be confused... :-)
Corzine? Character? ............contradiction in terms.
Corzine made sure his money locked up Dumbocrat voting blocs.....unions, Black ministers, FemiNazis. Now if JonBoy pays of the mortgages of individuals from the NJEA and the DEP, he's got it made.
I wonder if Corzine is as brilliant a money man as everyone assumed he was? Yeah, he punched out of Sachs with a huge purse of money, but how much of that was made shilling for dot coms, and other shady deals?
In this case, it was for votes.
Wow! I guess in New Jerseyeeze, "Vote-Buyer is spelled Philanthropist".
As long as a Dumbocrat demonstrates "tolerance and (gag) compassion," they get away with murder......old Clinton scam.
And the fools in NJ will vote for him.
ps. I live in Jersey. I can say it.
FYI
CORZINE GAL-PAL LOAN A CRIME: LAWYER
August 19, 2005 -- PRINCETON TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Sen. Jon Corzine, New Jersey's Democratic gubernatorial candidate, c
committed a federal felony by failing to disclose a half-million-dollar loan he'd made to the powerful union boss who was his girlfriend, a public-interest lawyer charged yesterday.
"There is no 'girlfriend loophole,' " said Bruce Afran, adding that he planned to officially complain to the Senate. "One of the highest-ranking union officers in the state is given a half-million-dollar gift by a sitting U.S. senator. That is precisely the type of transaction the Senate wants to know about."
He said he and his partner were preparing to file a complaint, accusing Corzine of falsifying a disclosure document, with the Senate Ethics Committee.....
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/51451.htm
LOTS of dirt here, bump and ping.....
< snip > Corzine gave his former girlfriend a $470,000 gift so she could repay the debt on her home, which sold for a little more than $360,000. She's a union leader who pushed to endorse him in two elections and represents the largest state workers union.
>>>>Kessenich's late husband was a Citicorp executive who knew Corzine from his days on Wall Street.
Citicorp sure does come up a lot with political scam stories and UN Oil for Food stories.
So, how do we get this federal felony charged?
Dirt? I don't see no dirt. This is everyday politics in NJ.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1352722/posts
New Jersey - Corruption and Scandal BUMP LIST
And the fools in NJ will vote for him. ps. I live in Jersey. I can say it.
Our choice in this election is between the corrupt socialist scumbag and the whiney big-government milquetoast liberal.
Does anybody know if that guy from the Smithereens is running on the Libertarian ticket again?
Watch this guy operate. He is cooler and has less conscience than Clinton, and that is something I thought impossible.
Funniest thing about the election? The Ledger calls Corzine a thief, yet they will endorse him.
Do we have any ideas on who will be in the wings for the Lt. Gov positions before election day also?
We have to watch for being Codiefied again.
At the end of the day, no one will question Corzine on anything. In fact, NJ will even elect him as their next governor. I've all but given up on Jersey.
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