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Posted on 10/02/2002 3:23:13 PM PDT by Liz
BACKGROUND FROM OTHER SOURCES
Questions have ....been raised about a 1992 "sweetheart deal" stock purchase in which Torricelli obtained an unsecured loan in order to buy shares in a hugely profitable offering - not open to the general public - in a local savings-and-loan association headed by a longtime friend.
In August 2002, the former president of a defunct Hackensack brokerage firm was sentenced to nine months in prison Monday for making illegal campaign contributions to Sen. Robert G. Torricelli and former President Bill Clinton, as well as manipulating the prices of stocks.
Lawrence Penna, 58, of Edgewater pleaded guilty in October 1999 to illegally funneling $20,000 to Torricelli's 1996 campaign and up to $12,000 to Clinton's reelection campaign by reimbursing "straw donors" after personally contributing the maximum.
Federal election laws limit individuals to donating no more than $1,000 per election, and prohibit one donor from reimbursing another. Torricelli spokeswoman Debra DeShong said the senator was not aware of Penna's illegal activities. The Senate's Ethics Committee reviewed the investigation's findings. Although it "severely admonished" Torricelli for taking gifts from a contributor without disclosing them, its final letter made no mention of illegal donations that have led to the convictions of seven other Torricelli contributors. Penna also admitted to lying to the Securities and Exchange Commission when it investigated stock trades by his firm, Investors Associates Inc.
U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska ordered Penna to serve nine months even though a presentencing report recommended six months and Penna's lawyers argued for no jail time because he has heart disease and a sick daughter who relies on him for care.
Penna also admitted that he and two colleagues from Investors Associates conspired to make $36 million in illegal profits by manipulating five initial public stock offerings between 1995 and 1997.
In addition to ordering him to surrender to authorities no later than Oct. 4, Preska said Penna will have to reimburse the full $36 million. Once he is released from prison, he will have to pay no less than 10 percent of his gross pay monthly as restitution.
Defense lawyer Ronald Fischetti, who represents Penna, said in court his client cooperated with federal investigators probing stock trading and Torricelli donations.
Through Investors Associates, Penna also illegally coordinated the prices of five IPOs, including one for Compare Generiks Inc., a Long Island drug distributor.
Torricelli's blind trust made a one-day profit of more than $50,000 investing in Compare Generiks, even though other investors lost hundreds of thousands of dollars on the stock.
In an interview in 1999, the trust's executor, Matthew Gohd of Las Vegas-based Whale Securities, dismissed any connection between campaign contributions and stock profit.
He said he had no idea Investors Associates had inflated the price of the stock. If Torricelli had directed Gohd to buy the stock, it would have violated the guidelines for his blind trust.
But Bruno said Penna dealt with Gohd on the transaction and that Torricelli was not involved. "As far as Larry knows, the senator didn't know anything about it," Bruno said. "He would have no reason to protect [Torricelli] at this point."
We need to have a strong federal law that charges "Breach of Public Trust". If you are caught and convicted you go to a hard time prison and when you get there the warden gives you a shovel and walks you to the prison graveyard. You are ordered to dig a grave and you are told you are going to be there until you die and they put your sorry butt in that grave.
I am sick of these slimeballs and I want to see some punishment. Torricelli is going to retire and get to keep 6 million in campaign donations. Some punishment for a full blown puke.
Outrageous.
Let me get this straight.
Seven perps give cash to a jerk.
The perps go to jail and the jerk goes home.
Sounds ethical to me.
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Because Trafficant is a Congressman and the House of Representatives already had a GOP majority.
Torricelli is a Senator, and the Democrats held a one-Senator majority over the GOP.
The investigations of Torricelli was to be completed around the time Clinton left office and Bush took office. At that time, the Democrats needed every Democrat Senator (still do), or else Jim Jefford's defection would not have made any difference whatsoever.
Senators no longer get to keep their unused campaign funds when they retire. They can donate them to other federal office seekers or donate them to their party.
Also, Torricelli as far as I have heard is not retiring. He is only dropping out of his reelection campaign. He can keep those funds and use them for a later election campaign.
No wonder everything is crooked; no wonder the citizens are cynical. We need statesmen from both parties to say "ENOUGH ALREADY". Where are they? WE'RE WAITING!
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