Ben Protess, Landon Thomas, Chad Bray, "U.S. Investigates Currency Trades by Major Banks: 'Cartel' Was Nickname," The New York Times, November 15, 2013, p. A1. (Perhaps "Cartel" was more than a nickname or screen-name?)
Charlie Savage & Mark Mazzetti, "C.I.A. Collects Global Data On Transfers Of Money," The New York Times, November 15, 2013, p. A11. (Scrutiny of money transfers will encourage flow of capital to Asia. Do we want the U.S. government monitoring all financial transactions on-line?)
Nicolas Confessore, "$122 Million In Spending by Koch Group," The New York Times, November 15, 2013, p. A17. (Is the C.I.A. monitoring these transactions? Are the Koch brothers fronting for Mr. Netanyahu?)
Michael Powell, "After Ugly Campaign, Finding Little Grace In Brooklyn District Attorney's Exit," The New York Times, November 18, 2013, p. A18. (Sam Kellner, a whistle blower on Brooklyn's Orthodox community's child molestation epidemic, targeted by Mr. Hynes.)
Peter J. Sampson,"Ex-Union Leader's Theft Trial to Begin: He Allegedly Steered Jobs to Future Wife," The Record, November 12, 2013, p. L-1.
Peter J. Sampson, "Embezzelment Trial Set: Ex-Leader Accused in $350,000 Scheme," The Record, November 13, 2013, p. L-2.
Joe Malinconico, "Teacher in Student Sex Case Loses Certificate: Directed School Play Girl Participated In," The Record, November 13, 2013, p. L-3. (More child sex scandals in New Jersey schools: "Jennifer Velez is a Dyke Magnet!" and "Trenton's Nasty Lesbian Love-Fest!")
"Richard 'Buzzy' Dressel, a once-influential Bergen County union leader, goes on trial today, accused of embezzling more than $350,000 from an electrician's local and its apprentice program to enrich the woman who became his wife."
I am sure the young woman in question was sharing the funds with her husband to be. My deduction is that the young woman was sharing the cash under the table with her "beloved." Then again, the money may have been her beloved. ("Bribery in Union City, New Jersey.")
This is a familiar pattern in New Jersey: Allegedly, mafia-affiliated or -controlled labor unions STEALING the members' dues and, often, also lots of public money in construction projects, while being protected by crooked or corrupt politicians, police, and prosecutors, to say nothing of bought and paid-for judges. ("New Jersey is the Home of the Living Dead" and "Cement is Gold" then "Deborah T. Poritz and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey.")
The fun-loving union leaders engaging in these activities are civic-minded enough to be active on election days in "getting the vote out" and helping to make sure that the chumps ... eh, I mean the voters, decide things correctly. ("Voting in North Bergen, New Jersey" and "Mafia Influence in New Jersey Courts and Politics" then "Does Senator Menendez have mafia friends?" and "Is Senator Menendez a Suspect in Mafia-Political Murder in New Jersey?")
North Jersey is relatively "affluent" in relation to the rest of the country and state, so there is more to steal than in other territories, as we will see in the days and weeks ahead. This wealth makes illicit activities in the region especially attractive to organized crime figures and their bribed political friends. ("Joe Ferreiro is Bergen's Godfather" and "Joe Ferreiro Indicted Again.")
Zisa family members are facing new accusations of padding, or seeking to steal compensation from the taxpayers, which will serve as the basis for a forthcoming essay. ("The Zisa Family Goes to the Mattresses" and "JoeyD Knows How to Eat!" then "Diana's Friend Goes to Prison" and "More Mafia Arrests in New Jersey and Anne Milgram is Clueless.")
"An eight-count indictment accuses the two men" -- Dressel and John M. DeBouter, 56, of Oakland -- "of conspiring to fraudulently give Dressel's girlfriend and later second wife, KATHLEEN LIPONATI, multiple sources of income from the Paramus-based [union] and its Joint Apprentice Training Fund."
Money from union members and/or fees paid by government agencies are often kept 'all in the family" in New Jersey's public building scams. ("Menendez Says: 'Xanadu and You and Are Perfect Together!")
"In March, 2008, the indictment alleges, Dressel and DeBouter instituted a 'captive lunch program' to purportedly counteract an alcohol abuse problem among apprentices taking classes at the local campus. Libonati's 'Ship-to-Shore' catering business was hired and paid about $60,000 annually to provide meals four days a week to about 40 trainees."
These meals must have consisted of caviar and fine wine. At the same time, Ms. Libonati was hired as a $1,000 per week member of Mr. Dressel's "office staff" (no conflict of interest?) with 50 percent in fringe benefits for health, pension, and annuity funds.
Ms. Libonati received a total only through March, 2010 of $145,973. Incidentally, she can't type. ("Celeste Carpiano Likes Da Shore" and "Law and Ethics in the Soprano State.")
Meanwhile, back at the Ponderosa:
"A former Kennedy High School music teacher [and teachers' union member?] indicted on charges he had sex in 2010 with a student who participated in a school play he directed has lost his state teaching certificate."
This is only one of the recent child molesting episodes that I will be discussing in the weeks ahead, over a short period of time, occurring in a single small geographical area of New Jersey. There have been more such incidents throughout the state.
The thefts and contracts allowing for thefts from this union were contrived with the assistance of "ethical" New Jersey lawyers. ("Corrupt Law Firms, Senator Bob, and New Jersey Ethics.")
New Jersey may be summarized in these stories that are duplicated almost on a DAILY BASIS: grotesque, perverse exploitation of children for sexual purposes, with the cooperation of the power-structure (for a small fee), and theft on a massive scale and at every level of the system that can only be made possible by obvious corruption among lawyers, judges, politicians hypocritical enough to judge the ethics of others, usually as a distraction from their own crimes. ("Stuart Rabner and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey" and "New Jersey's Politically-Connected Lawyers On the Tit" then "New Jersey Lawyers' Ethics Farce" and "Is Menendez For Sale?")
No one familiar with the realities of New Jersey law and politics seriously denies the role of the mafia in governing the state. ("More Mafia Influence in New Jersey Courts and Politics.")
Mr. Christie has made some improvements, but much remains to be done before New Jersey can escape its joke-status in America and the world. The Garden State remains far from the norm in government that is acceptable in most of the rest of the nation.
New Jersey's revolting spectacle of theft from the public treasury and child abuse is sad and painful to contemplate -- especially for many persons afflicted by Super-Storm Sandy who are still waiting for the help they were promised which may have been stolen. ("Mr. Boehner's Disgrace" and "New Jersey Supreme Court' Implosion.")
Do you speak to me of "ethics" at the OAE? ("New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System" and "New Jersey's Office of Attorney Ethics.")
