http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1421318/posts
Loophole lets ex-con fund his retirement; Former politician taps leftover election cash
STAR LEDGER ^ | Sunday, June 12, 2005 | TED SHERMAN
Posted on 06/12/2005 8:42:44 AM EDT by Liz
Tom D'Alessio is a generous guy.
Two months after he was released from federal prison after serving time for political corruption charges in 1998, the former Essex County Executive set up a charitable foundation.
D'Alessio called it the Evergreen Fund and has bankrolled it with more than $1.8 million of the nearly $2 million that was left in his campaign fund.
Last year, the foundation reported it gave out $37,750 in contributions of $500 or so to dozens of organizations like the March of Dimes, the United Way and the Boy Scouts. It also paid D'Alessio an $81,708 salary as executive director, leased a $45,665 Mercedes-Benz for him and purchased a $432,000 luxury condominium on Marco Island along Florida's Gulf Coast.
And it was all perfectly legal.
While New Jersey law prevents former political candidates from pocketing leftover campaign cash, they can give the money to charity. Using that loophole, D'Alessio has been able to tap that money through the Evergreen Fund.
Public records show the 70-year-old D'Alessio, a onetime Essex County sheriff, has paid himself far more than the actual charitable endeavors, funding a comfortable Florida retirement by tapping into the now tax-exempt money.
Between 1999 and 2003, the Evergreen Fund gave $200,850 to nonprofit organizations in New Jersey and Florida, where D'Alessio now resides, according to the foundation's income tax returns. The most recent return was filed in November.
During that same period, the foundation spent more than $886,000 in operating and administrative expenses, including $346,140 in salary for D'Alessio, who also receives a $3,318 monthly state pension. During those five years, the foundation spent $16,233 for travel, $52,000 in accounting fees and $30,000 in salary for his daughter, Jennifer Luongo of Nutley, who is a director and the foundation's treasurer.
(Excerpt)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1485679/posts
FORRESTER: CORZINE MUST REVEAL DETAILS ON VOTE TO GIVE HIMSELF A $5 MILLION TAX BREAK
Forrestor Campaign ^ | September 15, 2005 | Sherry Sylvester
Posted on 09/16/2005 9:14:42 AM EDT by Spaghetti Man
(TRENTON, NJ) – Gubernatorial candidate Doug Forrester today called on Jon Corzine to fully disclose the details surrounding a vote in the Senate that earned Corzine millions of dollars.
“Jon Corzine voted to bail out Japanese bank underwriters at a cost of millions of dollars to U.S. taxpayers. It’s disturbing to learn he was one of a tiny handful who made millions of dollars of the vote.”
Despite extensive briefing by the Department of Treasury and Committee on Taxations, Corzine claims that he had no knowledge that he stood to earn approximately $5 million by casting a vote to give him and his business partners a tax break in March 2004.