Governor McGreevey "Donor" In Guilty Plea

A top gubernatorial donor who is accused of having a prostitute seduce a government witness is to plead guilty Wednesday, a federal official said.

The plea by Charles Kushner is to be taken at 11 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares in Newark, an aide to the judge said Tuesday. The court calendar did not specify what charge or charges were involved, the aide said.

A federal official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the hearing would be for a guilty plea.

Messages seeking comment from Kushner lawyer Benjamin Brafman were not immediately returned.

Greg Reinert, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie, said federal prosecutors would have a news conference following an 11 a.m. proceeding in front of Linares. Reinert declined to say more.

Gov. James E. McGreevey's spokespeople and lawyer did not immediately return calls.

Kushner, a real estate developer, was accused July 13 of hiring a prostitute to have sex with his own brother-in-law, William Schulder, who was a cooperating witness in a grand jury investigation into whether Kushner violated campaign contribution laws and committed tax fraud.

Prosecutors said Kushner, McGreevey's top contributor, ordered the sex act videotaped and a copy of the tape sent to his own sister, Schulder's wife.

Kushner is charged with conspiracy, obstructing a federal investigation and promoting interstate prostitution.

The court action Wednesday is slated to come less than a week after McGreevey announced he had an extramarital affair with a man and would resign Nov. 15. Sources close to McGreevey have identified the man as Golan Cipel, an Israeli the governor had appointed to a state homeland security job.

Kushner sponsored the work visa that allowed Cipel to come to the United States and gave him a $30,000-a-year job in public relations with one of his companies.

McGreevey fund-raiser David D'Amiano was indicted July 7, charged with extortion, alleging he demanded money to help a farmer get a favorable sale price for his land in a farmland preservation program. Although McGreevey was not mentioned by name in that indictment, the governor has said he believes he is the "State Official 1" referred to repeatedly in the indictment.

McGreevey is not implicated in the criminal complaint against Kushner, which said Kushner recruited two prostitutes to have sex acts recorded on tape with two former employees.

Prosecutors have said Kushner, 50, of Livingston, was attempting to retaliate against witnesses for cooperating in an ongoing investigation that focused on Kushner's business practices and campaign donations.

One of the associates, Schulder, had sex with a prostitute at a Bridgewater hotel in December. The other associate declined advances from a second prostitute.

Kushner's Florham Park firm, The Kushner Companies, is worth $1 billion. It owns or manages 20,000 apartments in New Jersey and several other states, builds 500 to 1,000 new homes a year and has commercial properties in New York, Newark, Jersey City, Plainsboro, Hoboken and several other localities.

In February 2003, Kushner withdrew as McGreevey's nominee to head the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. At the time, Kushner was the target of lawsuits contending he improperly used business funds for personal and political purposes.

Kushner denied any wrongdoing and McGreevey refused to back away from the appointment despite months of questions about the nominee's background and campaign donations.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/news/stories/0714ibizsplit.html

The family: Five years of bad blood

With business split came start of a bitter feud

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

BY TED SHERMAN
Star-Ledger Staff

It began as a quiet family feud within a massive real estate empire, a fight that split apart two brothers in an angry series of recriminations and lawsuits that eventually led to a federal investigation.

Yesterday, the family squabble of the Kushners turned into a very public criminal case. Charles Kushner, the developer and high-profile philanthropist -- a major political fund-raiser who brought in money for presidents, senators and governors -- was arrested and accused of setting up the spouse of "a close relative" through a blackmail scheme involving a high-priced prostitute, with the aim of gaining leverage in the federal probe.

While the complaint did not name them, law enforcement sources and others familiar with details of the investigation identified the close relative and the spouse as Kushner's sister Esther and her husband, William Schulder.

Kushner and his siblings have been at odds with each other for years: a Kushner vs. Kushner drama pitting him against his brother Murray, with their two sisters in opposing camps.

According to family friends, the dispute brewed for years, fueled by jealousy and perceptions that Charles had been a favored son. Yet for a time, all four were involved in the Florham Park-based development business that now has interests in housing projects, insurance, banking, and rental properties stretching beyond New Jersey.

Murray Kushner was a partner in some projects. Schulder, the Kushners' brother-in-law, worked for the company, and Esther Schulder received payouts from projects. The other sister, Linda Laulicht, was the beneficiary of other partnership agreements.

Five years ago, the extended family began to come apart. According to court papers, Charles suggested in 1999 that he and his brother no longer work together. "Murray angrily responded that if they could not be partners, they could not be brothers," stated the papers, filed by Charles.

In a separate lawsuit, Robert Yontef, a former Kushner Cos. accountant, claimed that money from the company's business partnerships was being diverted into illegal political contributions and personal expenses. Yontef said he had raised the issues with Esther, who then took his information to Murray Kushner.

According to Yontef, Charles Kushner fired Schulder and cash distributions to Esther were stopped.

Murray filed suit against his brother in 2002, charging mismanagement. After the suit was sealed by a court at the agreement of both sides, pending settlement negotiations, Yontef filed his lawsuit, specifically spelling out the allegations.

Those close to Charles Kushner said at the time that the Yontef lawsuit was filed for no reason than to embarrass him. However, the lawsuit caught the attention of the U.S. Attorney's Office, which began an investigation into whether Kushner had violated tax and fraud statutes through the use of his real estate partnerships.

Murray's lawsuit was settled last year, and Yontef dropped his complaint -- not long after the alleged blackmail operation outlined in yesterday's federal complaint was launched.

Members of the family did not return phone calls yesterday, but past interviews with many painted a long-simmering animosity between the two Kushner brothers, stirred up by the strong-willed personality of Charles -- a man on a first-name basis with Bill Clinton and Rudolph Giuliani, who did not like to take no for an answer.

While saying he could be warm and was often soft-spoken, friends and family also spoke of Kushner's temper. Last year, as he was seeking the chairmanship of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, he became embroiled in a confrontation with state Sen. William Gormley (R-Atlantic), which boiled over in public when the two exchanged harsh words at a wedding.

Facing increased scrutiny of his campaign contributions, he later resigned from the Port Authority.

The son of Holocaust survivors, Kushner, 50, grew up in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Elizabeth, where his father, Joseph, worked as a carpenter and later as a builder who acquired and managed small properties.

A graduate of New York University, Kushner earned a master of business administration and a law degree. He practiced law for four years before leaving to open a real estate business with his father and his wife's brother.

They set up shop in a rented office on Route 10 in East Hanover, focusing mostly on acquisitions of existing properties, and making money by renovating or improving the structures to generate higher rents.

Just before his father died, Kushner ventured into the first big-risk deal of his life: the $39 million acquisition of an apartment complex on Route 206 in Mount Olive, with the intention of expanding it.

"My father died and I was responsible for building out a $25 million section by myself," he recalled in an interview two years ago. "It was a maturing experience."

As his business grew, Kushner also began making large political contributions, using his various partnerships to funnel support to state and national candidates, including Gov. James E. McGreevey.

He put even more money into philanthropic causes, including the building of a religious school in his father's name, and has been a major benefactor to Hofstra Law School, to various Jewish institutions, to Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston and the Newark Archdiocese and Catholic Charities.

While critics said the money he spread around -- whether to political campaigns or charitable causes -- was simply for gaining access in high places, Kushner denied any ulterior motive, calling his political support and philanthropy his responsibility.

Still, earlier this month, Kushner agreed to pay $508,900 in fines to settle allegations he violated federal election law by repeatedly making improper donations to campaigns, including the presidential races of Bill Bradley and Al Gore. The investigation found that Kushner made contributions in the names of business partners without their knowledge.

He also settled state charges that centered on donations he made to New Jersey political candidates while controlling Livingston-based NorCrown Bank.

In an interview long before the federal probe began, Kushner remarked that his life was simplistic.

"I love to go to work," he said. "I love to go home."

July 14, 2004

CNN Buries Kerry Connection To Indicted Fundraiser

Some people consider politics to be little more than prostitution -- the selling of one's self for campaign financing and the votes of the electorate. Unfortunately, when faced with a federal investigation of his campaign contributions, real-estate entrepeneur Charles Kushner relied on his political pimping skills for Democrats, attempting to thwart the probe by literally screwing the feds out of a witness:

Real estate developer and political fund-raiser Charles Kushner of Livingston, New Jersey, was charged by federal prosecutors Tuesday with conspiracy, obstruction of justice and interstate promotion of prostitution. ... In February 2003, Christie's office began investigating Kushner for alleged violation of federal tax and fraud statutes and for purported violation of federal campaign contribution laws. According to the indictment, two of the cooperating witnesses in the investigation -- a married couple described as close relatives of Kushner -- provided information against him to federal investigators.

The indictment alleges that Kushner initiated "a scheme to orchestrate a covert videotaped seduction" of the cooperating male witness in an attempt to thwart the investigation. The indictment says Kushner recruited two individuals to hire a woman to have sex with the male witness and later instructed them to mail the videotape to the man's wife, who was the other cooperating witness in the investigation.

Nor is this Kushner's first time in trouble with the law. The FEC levied a half-million-dollar fine against him last month for laundering contributions to political candidates through his corporations. Kushner apparently decided to exercise some professional courtesy by hiring people from the world's oldest profession and bring them into his efforts at the world's oldest pastime -- covering one's butt. Unfortunately, Kushner appears to be somewhat of a loser; not only does his own family rat him out, but he can't even hire two hookers without the feds tumbling to the scheme.

Meanwhile, Kushner's client list must be feeling some heat from this arrest. The amateur pimp procured vast amounts of money for some high-profile pols, including Hillary Clinton, Joe Lieberman, New Jersey governor James McGreevey (who nominated Kushner to run the Port Authority in 2003) ... and John Kerry, a guy whose name people might also recognize.

So Kerry is involved in yet another campaign-finance scandal! At least this time no evidence exists that Kerry did anything unusual to foster the relationship, at least not yet. But I find it interesting in the extreme that CNN held that little nugget of information out until the 13th paragraph of the story. Had Kushner been a Republican fundraiser, do you think that would have been an afterthought in this story? Or would you suppose that instead of running this article in its "Law Center" section with the headline, "New Jersey fund-raiser charged,", it would have run in the Politics or News section with the headline, "Bush Backer Indicted In Prostitution-Blackmail Attempt"?

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