Dick Morris supposedly turned on the Clintons.
Now the rumor is he's been their operative all along. Biggest political spy in modern times.
Scared me for a moment. I guess it really means he will turn against Hillary. The mental picture the headline created in me was horrific.
As a matter of fact, I made my first post on FR (and nearly got banned) for stating my belief that Zell Miller - who pledged Clinton loyalty in '92 - is still their loyal tool. He only wanted Kerry to lose so that Hillary can run in '08. I still believe this.
Clinton, Rosen, Tonken
Joel Miller January 10, 2005
The Hillary Clinton/David Rosen/Aaron Tonken story is exploding. Rush was talking about it today, as was the editorial page of the New York Sun. And NPR even covered it Sunday, tying in the charity-scam angle with tsunami charitable giving.
But the real scuttlebutt is Hillary Clinton. Probing the question of Hillary's involvement in monies spent on the Hollywood Gala that honored her husband and dumped loads of possibly illegally reported cash into her Senate campaign coffers, Rush Limbaugh today summed up the question simply:
When the Clintons are involved and there is a scandal, is it easier to believe they know about it or they don't know about it? Is it easier to believe they're in on it or not in on it? We had Travelgate. We had Whitewater. We had Lewinsky. We had Paula Jones. All of these scandals. . . . I'm telling you, folks, wise behavior here is to take previous experience guided by intelligence and come to a conclusion. The conclusion is, a scandal-ridden bunch like this, there's another scandal, is it logical to assume they don't know anything about it? Is it logical to assume that one of their cohorts is turning on them and trying to screw 'em? Is it logical to believe that they're just innocent bystanders in all this? No it's not logical to believe that in any way, shape, manner, or form.
Based on Aaron Token's recollection of events, Limbaugh is exactly right. Writes Aaron on page 283 of King of Cons, "I went along [with Rosen]. I didn't know any better. Eventually, I would become a lot more familiar with Federal Election Commission requirements and see exactly how much misreporting had been done on things I was involved with. Tons." At the time, though, Aaron says he had to trust Rosen—albeit not completely, it turns out. "Concerned that some day this stuff might come back to haunt me, I saved all the receipts." He did, and he later turned over more than two dozen boxes of documents to the Feds to back up his story.
But back to the junior senator from New York. To how much of the alleged shenanigans was she privy? "Did she really know what was going on?" Aaron writes on 350 and 351. "I think David Rosen knew; I think [longtime aide] Kelly Craighead knew; I think [fund-raiser] Jim Levin knew. But Hillary? It was very possible that they hid it from her. In a way, that was their job. Protect the candidate."
But they didn't do a good job. Flip ahead to pages 365 and 366:
I'd spent odd moments alone with [Hillary] before, primarily in the evening at the White House. But this was my real shot to talk to her with no one else around, and what I wanted was to let her know how much I admired her, how much I was behind her, and most important, what I had already done for her. It was, quite by accident, the moment of truth. . . .
I told her about virtually every penny I'd spent on her behalf. I let her know what I was doing and had done for each event of hers. I spoke about the money and what a pleasure and honor it was to spend it on her candidacy for the U.S. Senate.
Once and for all, I wanted it clear in her mind who was the person really doing things for her. There was so much jockeying for position among those around her: Kelly, David, Jim Levin, and so on. People taking credit for stuff. I thought I might have been short-changed, and I wanted to correct that.
I believed that once she knew the facts, she would see how valuable I was to her and welcome me into her inner circle. The whole thing was intended to be solely for my benefit. I never wanted to hurt her. I could tell she wasn't entirely comfortable with this conversation, and yet I couldn't stop. It wasn't until much later that I fully realized what I had done. Whatever protection her staff had built around her, however much in the dark they had kept her, that was over.
Now she knew.
Did Hillary say, "Whoa, Nelly! Desist! Halt! Stop!"? Did she tell Rosen to rectify the matter on the campaign finance reports? Did she warn others about Aaron? Apparently not.
King of Cons features reproductions of thank-you letters Hillary wrote Aaron. Others exist that couldn't for space considerations be included. Bill Clinton was closely involved in a future Tonken project, A Family Celebration 2001 (ironic, considering that Bill's idea of family is loose enough to include the White House intern pool). Clinton was also pleased to receive checks totaling $300,000 from Aaron for his presidential foundation—copies of the checks are reproduced in the book. King of Cons also includes copies of Rosen's Beverly Hills Hotel bill for the event. Total: $9,280.58. But it's more than campaign finance.
The entire hypocritical leftist galaxy of Hollywood gets a salacious send-up in King of Cons. From Aaron's days as a virtual prisoner of Zsa-Zsa Gabor, to getting chiseled by Sylvester Stallone, to run-ins with Cher, Lance Bass, Roseanne, Barbra Streisand, the cast of Friends, Melanie Griffith, Sharon Stone—it's hilarious, tragic, absurd, awful, and incredible. And with David Rosen's indictment and further exploration into Hillary's involvement, it's also politically explosive. (Updated, 8:26pm CST.)
If anyone squeals on Hillary, but the MSM doesn't cover it, does it still ake a noise? NO...the MSM will NEVER cover this....never.
January 11, 2005
Post Trauma Syndrome
It must be pretty tough being a Liberal nowadays. Look back at 2004 and you see a stunning electoral defeat, in spite of the fact that CBS producer Mary Mapes and all the bulging foreheads down at the New York Times were doing their level best to put your boy John Kerry in the White House. Look ahead to 2008 and you see Hillary burdened with the albatross of David Rosen--her campaign-finance director in 2000--who has just been indicted for shady fund raising practices. Today's New York Post lays it all out with admirable clarity.
In "Another Hillary Scandal", Dick Morris lays out the time line so well that the prosecutor's work is nearly done. According to Morris, by September of 2000 Republican Rick Lazio had closed in on Hillary's lead and had also raised a large amount of hard money. Knowing Hillary was both an outspoken enemy of soft money and a huge recipient of same, Lazio "invaded her space" during a televised debate, brandishing a pen and demanding she sign a pledge to receive no more soft money. Though shying back as if she had been physically threatened, Hillary signed.
With very little hard money in the campaign coffers, it looked as if Hillary had signed away the election as well.
While her defenders hit the talking-head circuit to portray Lazio as an abusive white male, David Rosen quietly undereported the cost of a recent Hollywood fundraiser for Hillary to the FEC, thus giving the campaign $280,000 in extra hard money. The legal, non-Arkansas way to raise that kind of cash would be to get 280 donors to write 280 $1000 checks. No big deal. The illegal way is a bit trickier. Morris writes out of his considerable campaign experience when he notes, '"A decision of this magnitude--how much to say the event cost--would have been a huge issue within the campaign."
Morris concludes, "If young David Rosen wants to take the fall for Hillary and join the likes of Web Hubbell and Susan MacDougal who chose to languish in prison rather than tell the truth, that is his decision. But don't ask us to believe something the average 8-year-old knows can't be true - that a gain to the campaign of $280,000.00 was beneath Hillary's notice."
Didn't David Wilhelm work for the Clintons also???
Hillary's finance chief indicted for L.A. gala
David Rosen faces 20 years for filing fictitious reports on Hollywood soiree
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's former finance director has been indicted on charges of filing fictitious reports that misstated contributions for a Hollywood fund-raiser for the senator.
The indictment charges David Rosen with four counts of filing false reports with the Federal Election Commission. The charges focus on an Aug. 12, 2000, dinner and concert supported by more than $1.1 million in "in-kind contributions" – goods and services provided for free or below cost. The event was estimated to cost more than $1.2 million.
Rosen is the second figure involved in organizing the soiree for Clinton to become entangled in legal problems as a result.
Aaron Tonken is currently in prison for his role in organizing the event – a tribute to then-President Bill Clinton and starring Cher, Patti LaBelle, Sugar Ray, Toni Braxton, Melissa Etheridge, Michael Bolton, Paul Anka and Diana Ross.
Tonken has authored a tell-all book, "King of Cons: Exposing the Dirty, Rotten Secrets of the Washington Elite and Hollywood Celebrities," on his role in the fraud.
The FBI previously said in court papers that it had evidence the former first lady's campaign deliberately understated its fund-raising costs so it would have more money to spend on her campaign.
While the event allegedly cost more than $1.2 million, the indictment said, Rosen reported contributions of about $400,000, knowing the figure to be false.
The indictment charged that he provided some documents to an FEC compliance officer but withheld the true costs of the event and provided false documents to substantiate the lower figure.
In one instance, Rosen obtained and delivered a fraudulent invoice stating the cost of a concert associated with the gala was $200,000 when he knew that figure was false, according to the indictment. The actual cost of the concert was more than $600,000.
Each of the four counts of making a false statement carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines upon conviction.
Mrs. Clinton's lawyer on campaign finance matters, David Kendall, told the Associated Press: "The Senate Campaign Committee has fully cooperated with the investigation. Mr. Rosen worked hard for the campaign, and we trust that when all the facts are in, he will be cleared."
The businessman who hosted the event, Peter Paul, has told federal authorities that it cost more than $1 million and that he had been surprised when he saw that most of the contributions were not reported.
The money from the fund-raiser went to Mrs. Clinton's successful campaign for a Senate seat from New York, the Democrats' national Senate campaign organization and a state Democratic Party committee.
During former President Clinton's administration, a Justice Department campaign finance task force charged more than two dozen individuals and two corporations with fund-raising abuses from the 1996 election cycle. Many of the charges involved Democratic fund raising.
In addition to his Clinton effort, Rosen has raised money for several other high-profile Democratic candidates, including former presidential hopeful Wesley Clark. Most recently, he was named to the fund-raising team of Donnie Fowler, a candidate for the Democratic National Committee chairmanship.
Tonken, 34 at the time of the 2000 fund-raiser, basked in his role in organizing the fund-raiser, never imaging he'd be facing down government investigators within a couple of years.
Writes Tonken in describing the departure of the Clintons the night of the gala: "Just before they got into the limo, I handed the president gifts from me, Stan Lee and Peter Paul: for him, a custom humidor and a handmade gold watch worth tens of thousands; for Hillary, a necklace that cost eight grand. The first lady disliked it and later sent it back.
"Before my car arrived, I had my last fond glimpses of this gathering of the rich and famous. I watched them drive off into the night. I may have been the ultimate outsider growing up, but not any more. Now I was in, and they were my people.
"But not for long. In less than three years I'd be busted. Instead of chronicling my stunning successes, Variety's Army Archerd would be writing about my criminal misdeeds; I'd be talking not to presidents and movie stars, but to the FBI and other federal agencies, handing over more than two dozen boxes of letters, e-mails, receipts and invoices, cooperating as the government pursued a multifaceted investigation into the corruption that lay hidden behind all the glitter."
Tonken pleaded guilty last year to one count of mail fraud and one count of wire fraud in hopes of ultimately getting a lesser prison sentence. Instead, he was sentenced to 63 months in prison and ordered to pay $3.79 million to donors and event underwriters whom he bilked.
He clearly implicated Rosen.
"David Rosen, Hillary Clinton's director of finance, worked out of our offices and knew about every dime that was being spent," he writes. "More than that, he participated in the spending."
In his account of his dealings with Hillary, Tonken mentions how grateful she had been to him for all his help with her campaign. But how much did she know about the financial skullduggery?
"One thing about Hillary, she was very attentive to the little details," he writes. "I believe she is genuinely considerate in that way. The very next day [after the Hollywood fund-raiser], she sent me a thank-you note, partially handwritten, in which she said: 'Your ongoing support of my Senate candidacy is especially important to me, and I am grateful for your continued friendship.'
"Take a good, long look at the first half of that last sentence. I did, and it made me wonder: Did she really know what was going on? I think David Rosen knew; I think [longtime aide] Kelly Craighead knew; I think [fund-raiser] Jim Levin knew. But Hillary? It was very possible that they hid it from her. In a way, that was their job. Protect the candidate.
"That was all about to change."
Tonken later writes he explained what he was doing and how to the Senate candidate while the two were alone briefly in a van during a day of campaigning in L.A.:
"I'd spent odd moments alone with [Hillary] before, primarily in the evening at the White House. But this was my real shot to talk to her with no one else around, and what I wanted was to let her know how much I admired her, how much I was behind her, and most important, what I had already done for her. It was, quite by accident, the moment of truth. ...
"I told her about virtually every penny I'd spent on her behalf. I let her know what I was doing and had done for each event of hers. I spoke about the money and what a pleasure and honor it was to spend it on her candidacy for the U.S. Senate.
"Once and for all, I wanted it clear in her mind who was the person really doing things for her. There was so much jockeying for position among those around her: Kelly, David, Jim Levin, and so on. People taking credit for stuff. I thought I might have been short-changed, and I wanted to correct that.
"I believed that once she knew the facts, she would see how valuable I was to her and welcome me into her inner circle. The whole thing was intended to be solely for my benefit. I never wanted to hurt her. I could tell she wasn't entirely comfortable with this conversation, and yet I couldn't stop. It wasn't until much later that I fully realized what I had done. Whatever protection her staff had built around her, however much in the dark they had kept her, that was over.
"Now she knew."
Further implicating Rosen, Tonken writes of how he would run his schemes by the finance director and would routinely get the go-ahead.
Writes Tonken: "Since I had only a passing acquaintance with campaign-finance law. If there was any question in my mind, I'd call David. The problem was, whenever I asked for advice he would invariably laugh off my concerns and say, 'Don't worry. Just raise as much as possible. Just keep at it.'
"Here's an example: I came up with what I thought was a great idea to make it look as though support were coming from a lot of little donors, instead of one big one. I proposed that [Democratic donor] Cynthia [Gershman] would write a check for 40 grand, which she was willing to do, and I would run it through one of my accounts and emerge with cash and started giving it out in one-thousand- or two-thousand-dollar chunks to 20 or 30 people. They would then turn around and write personal checks of their own for the same amount, and that would be 'their' contribution. Sounded good to me, but when I presented it to David he laughed for about three minutes straight. When we got down to it, though, he told me to go ahead.
"I should have been suspicious when he added, 'Just don't tell anyone.' Later, he would pull me aside at Spago and re-emphasize the point: I was to keep that little trick of mine quiet, 'very quiet.'"
Tonken also writes of Rosen's concern about expenses, telling the author to "get rid" of receipts related to fund-raiser expenditures.
"What we want is the appearance that expenses were minimal," Tonken says Rosen told him.
A 2002 FBI affidavit backs up Tonken's account:
"The [2000 Hillary event's] costs exceeded $1 million, but the required forms filed by New York Senate 2000 ... months after the event incorrectly disclosed that the cost of the event was only $523,000," the affidavit reads. "It appears that the true cost of the event was deliberately understated in order to increase the amount of funds available to New York Senate 2000 for federal campaign activities."
Tonken's book tells how he continued to do his job after federal agents contacted him about cooperating with their probe.
"Month after month this investigation went on," he writes." My life began to seem surreal. Here I was, doing charity events where there was fraud involved; continuing to expand my political contacts, fielding telephone calls from President Clinton, the first lady and Gerald Ford; and at the same time being enmeshed in an FBI probe."
Based in Chicago, David Rosen, has been a fundraiser for several Democratic candidates including U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton and Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Most recently Mr. Rosen served as Midwest Finance Director for presidential candidate Wesley Clark. He also has helped candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives and Democratic 527 groups.
He faces twenty years. Neither Susan nor Webb faced that.
bttt
save
The Florida Democratic Party, Salon has learned, hopes to raise at least $15 million in its campaign to unseat Bush in 2002. For the first time in its history, the state party will be targeting donors in the other 49 states for at least half that sum. The campaign, called "Focus on Florida," will include direct-mail solicitations as well as a series of fundraising events throughout the country, kicking off on June 11 in New York with an event featuring Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla.
The party's out-of-state fundraising will be run by the Competence Group, a Chicago company formed in January and run by David Rosen, who headed up out-of-state fundraising for the November 2000 campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. Rosen said that Clinton raised approximately $20 million in both hard and soft money from outside the Empire State last year, and he hoped to raise anywhere from $7 million to $10 million in soft money for Florida Democrats for 2002.
News of the Democrats' new campaign seemed to catch the Florida Republican Party by surprise. "I had not heard that," spokeswoman Portia Palmer said. Calling back later after checking around the George Bush Building in Tallahassee, Palmer said, "We don't know anything about it. We don't have any comment until we know more about what exactly is going on."
State Democratic Party spokesman Bob Poe sounded positively giddy about what's going on. "This is the first time the Florida Democratic Party's ever done anything like this," he gushed, noting that the state GOP had pledged to raise around $40 million to keep Bush in the governor's mansion.
"People haven't forgotten," said Rosen. "People are energized. I'm getting a lot of that comment -- 'whatever I can do to help.'" While the name of the campaign -- Focus on Florida -- is positive, Rosen says, the motivating force behind the pending contributions doesn't have to be. "We want to capitalize on the emotions, period, positive or negative," he said. "What we do want is to realize something did happen in Florida and use that as a rallying point."
Reggie helps in case vs. Clinton aide
Source says calls taped as part of plea
Friday, April 22, 2005
By Gordon Russell and Martha Carr
Staff writers
New Orleans media consultant and Democratic Party operative Ray Reggie worked with the FBI to secretly tape phone conversations that are expected to figure in the case against U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton's former aide David Rosen as he is tried next month on charges of filing false campaign finance reports, according to a source close to the case.
Reggie's cooperation with the federal probe surfaced Thursday as he pleaded guilty to two federal bank fraud charges unrelated to the Rosen case. One of the bank fraud charges cost Hibernia National Bank $3.5 million, prosecutors said.
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Reggie, 43, signed documents essentially conceding his guilt in the bank case in August 2002, yet he was not charged by the government until Feb. 2. In the 30-month gap, Reggie became a government witness in hopes of securing a lesser sentence, the source said.
On Thursday, the New York Sun newspaper, citing court records in the Rosen case, reported that a "mystery witness," described as a Democratic fund-raiser, recorded conversations with Rosen in September 2002. The witness "tried to elicit statements from the former Clinton staffer about financial irregularities involving an August 2000 Hollywood fund-raising event."
The paper also noted that the witness was involved in Clinton's successful Senate campaign in New York and had pleaded guilty to bank fraud.
Reggie's attorney, Mike Ellis, would not confirm whether his client was cooperating in the Rosen case. Rosen's attorney, Paul Sandler of Baltimore, declined to comment. Acting New Orleans U.S. Attorney Jim Letten and David Dugas, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana -- where one of Reggie's bank fraud charges originated -- also refused to comment.
A source close to the case confirmed Thursday that at least one phone call between Reggie and Rosen was taped with Reggie's knowledge. Reggie worked on Clinton's campaign alongside Rosen, helping the Democratic candidate raise millions of dollars for her Senate campaign.
Clinton is not considered a target of the probe, which is led by the public integrity section of the Justice Department. No conversations between Reggie and Clinton were recorded, the source said.
Other cases mentioned
The Sun's article, without naming Reggie, attributes to the "mystery witness" several other characteristics that describe him. A November 2004 memo by prosecutor Peter Zeidenberg, for instance, notes that the "CW (confidential witness) is related to an extremely prominent and well-known political figure."
Reggie's sister, Victoria, is married to U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. His father, retired Crowley city Judge Edmund Reggie, is a longtime Democratic Party power broker and a close confidant of former Gov. Edwin Edwards.
The documents cited by the Sun suggest the FBI has sought to use Reggie as an informant in other probes as well. In the same memo, prosecutors wrote that the federal investigators wanted to use their witness in an inquiry into "a prominent political figure who may be involved in illegally soliciting foreign nationals to contribute to national political campaigns," the Sun reported.
The FBI also asked the witness to tape calls "with targets of an investigation into alleged political corruption in Louisiana," the newspaper said. The scheme described in the memo involved an unnamed state senator and a "fraudulent contract worth $5 million."
Though Reggie has close ties to former Mayor Marc Morial, whose administration has been under close scrutiny by Letten's office, the Sun makes no mention of Reggie providing information related to that probe.
Hard money, soft money
The Rosen case involves alleged violations of complex federal regulations governing campaign donations -- in particular the distinction between "hard" money, which can be spent directly on behalf of a campaign, and "soft" money, which must be used for more general advocacy.
In brief, the government claims that the Clinton campaign underreported the cost of a lavish, star-studded Hollywood event that Reggie helped plan. The effect was to increase the residual amount of hard money available to the campaign.
Rosen is charged with three counts of filing fictitious reports in connection with the gala, a combination fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton and tribute to outgoing President Clinton. Federal prosecutors allege that Rosen reported the event's cost at $401,419 when it actually cost at least $1.2 million. The event raised more than $1 million, according to the indictment against Rosen.
As the chief finance director for Hillary Clinton's campaign, Rosen was responsible for all planning for the event, according to the indictment. Rosen is also accused of obtaining and delivering a false invoice stating that the cost of a concert staged as part of the event was $200,000, when it actually cost more than $600,000.
The gala's organizers included Hollywood producer Peter Paul, a convicted felon now facing stock fraud charges in New York, and charity fund-raiser Aaron Tonken, who pleaded guilty in 2003 to charges of diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars from donors and underwriters of Hollywood events he organized, including the August 2000 gala.
Paul reportedly has been cooperating with prosecutors.
The indictment comes at a time when Hillary Clinton is considered a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2008, and faces the prospect of challenges in 2006 for her Senate seat from former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and New York Gov. George Pataki, both Republicans.
Clinton lawyers have said her Senate campaign committee is fully cooperating with the investigation and that they expect Rosen to be cleared.
Rosen told the confidential witness in the case that although the campaign reported spending $600,000 on the event, "We probably spent a million," according to a transcript of the conversation quoted in the Sun.
In the same conversation, Rosen is quoted as explaining that the cost of the event was a problem, leading to the shifting of funds. "You rarely wanna do 50 cents to raise a dollar," the Sun quoted him as saying. "You have to pay the percentage out of the income. So we would have to move hard to soft. Not the other way around."
Go-to guy
Reggie signed on as a fund-raiser and media strategist for Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign after years spent forging a close relationship with her husband.
A fast-rising star in Democratic fund-raising circles, Reggie volunteered in Bill Clinton's first bid for the White House in 1992. After Clinton became president, the two struck up a pen-pal relationship and eventually became friends.
Reggie was invited to state dinners, traveled with the president on Air Force One, and was among a select group allowed to spend the night at the White House.
Reggie was also Clinton's go-to guy whenever the president visited New Orleans. He regularly planned high-end fund-raising dinners, accompanied the president to fancy restaurants, and once persuaded the owners of Snug Harbor to make room for the ex-president in a sold-out show.
Family tradition
Reggie is a native of Crowley, an Acadiana hamlet that has produced an improbable number of Louisiana's best-known political figures, among them Edwards, former U.S. Sen. John Breaux, former U.S. Rep. Chris John and New Orleans lawyer and dealmaker William Broadhurst.
Reggie's father, Edmund Reggie, forged a close relationship with John F. Kennedy after persuading Louisiana's delegation to support Kennedy's failed bid to be the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 1956, four years before Kennedy won the presidency. In 1992, the marriage of Ray Reggie's sister to Ted Kennedy cemented the bonds between the two families.
Like his son, Edmund Reggie was the target of federal prosecutors. In 1993, he was fined $30,000 and sentenced to four months of home confinement after he was convicted on one count and pleaded no contest to another count of misusing bank funds.
Though Edmund Reggie is the only member of the family to have held political office, both he and Ray Reggie have acquired reputations as talented political fixers.
Two years ago, for instance, the Kennedy family asked Edmund Reggie to broker an agreement between warring political factions so green space resulting from the Big Dig project in Boston could be dedicated as a park honoring the Kennedy matriarch, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. The senior Reggie moved into a Boston apartment to get the deal done.
In addition to his work on campaigns for both Clintons, Ray Reggie worked on former Vice President Al Gore's 2000 presidential bid and helped raise money for U.S. Sen. John Kerry, a close friend who was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004. Locally, he worked on the mayoral campaigns of Marc Morial and former New Orleans Police Superintendent Richard Pennington.
Legal about-face
In federal court Thursday, Reggie reversed earlier innocent pleas and pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of bank fraud conspiracy involving three banks: Union Planters Bank in Baton Rouge, and Whitney National Bank and Hibernia National Bank in New Orleans.
U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier set sentencing for Oct. 26.
The conspiracy count carries up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and the bank fraud charge carries up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
Though written terms of the plea agreement were not available Thursday, Ellis, Reggie's lawyer, said prosecutors have agreed in principle to "cap" Reggie's sentence at a maximum of five years in prison. The sentence could be far less -- depending, presumably, on the level of his cooperation.
Though judges tend to accept such agreements, they are not bound by them. Barbier, who was nominated by President Clinton, is free to ignore the agreement and use his discretion in sentencing Reggie, Ellis said.
According to a summary of the bank fraud case filed by Letten's office Thursday, Reggie's legal troubles date to 1999, when he began making "cross deposits" into business accounts at Union Planters and Whitney banks, artificially inflating the balances in both accounts.
At one point, the Union Planters account "was left with a negative balance of $4,230,793," the summary says. However, Reggie later made that bank whole, the summary says, in part by taking out a $6 million line of credit from Hibernia.
As collateral for the Hibernia loan, Reggie provided a contract worth $18.5 million that his company, Media Direct, had allegedly signed with the U.S. Census Bureau. But the contract, and other supporting documentation, was bogus, prosecutors say.
Some of the documents were signed under an assumed name by Lisa Blanchard, who worked for Reggie, the summary says. Blanchard purported to be a "contracting officer" at the Census Bureau named "Michelle A. Dinkins."
Blanchard has not been charged. Eddie Castaing, her lawyer, said he had no comment.
Hibernia lost "approximately $3.5 million as a result of the loan to Reggie," the case summary said.
. . . . . . .
Frank Donze contributed to this article.
Gordon Russell can be reached at grussell@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3307. Martha Carr can be reached at mcarr@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3306.
| ... of celebrities turned out Saturday for a $1 million fundraiser for Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign held at the estate of "radio mogul" Ken Roberts. ... https://secure.mediaresearch.org/ Campaign2000/mrc/20000815am.html - 26k - |
| ... Aaron Tonken is currently in prison for his role in organizing the event – a tribute to then-President Bill Clinton and starring Cher, Patti LaBelle, ... www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1316926/posts - 72k - |
| ... BTW...it was reported on April 19, 2004 that Hollywood fundraiser Aaron Tonken will be a star witness against the Clintons in a federal grand jury probe ... www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1128768/posts - 54k - |
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