CAFARO HAS FEDS BREATHING DOWN HIS NECK BECAUSE THIS IS HIS SECOND FEDERAL ELECTION LAWS VIOLATION.
BRIBES TRAFICANT - GIVES LOAN TO DAUGHTERS CAMPAIGN "UNDER THE RADAR". THIS GUY IS A BILLIONAIRE FROM A STORIED YOUNGSTOWN FAMILY. HE RUNS NORTHEAST OHIO.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- State Sen. Capri Cafaro's father admitted Monday that he skirted federal campaign finance law by hiding an illegal contribution to his daughter's unsuccessful 2004 bid for Congress.
Federal prosecutors accused former Youngstown mall developer John Cafaro of concealing a $10,000 loan to the campaign. They charged him Monday with making a false statement in connection with the loan, an offense that carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.
Cafaro's attorney Ralph Cascarilla said his client takes responsibility for his actions and plans to plead guilty.
"Although I wanted to help my daughter in her campaign, I made a mistake for which I am solely responsible," Cafaro said in a written statement. "As the investigation has determined, my daughter was not involved in any way."
Capri Cafaro also said Monday afternoon that she was not involved in the loan transaction. She said she learned during the investigation that the recipient was her former campaign chairman B.J. Schuerger, who is now a lobbyist in Columbus.
Schuerger's attorney John Climaco said his client did not violate the law in accepting the loan from John Cafaro. "Unfortunately Mr. Cafaro failed to report the loan," Climaco said.
Capri Cafaro said her father has made a habit of doing things and not telling her, "particularly things that he thinks I would not be supportive of."
Ethical questions have dogged Capri Cafaro in the past, but she doesn't think this latest incident will harm her political career because she has faith people will see her as an effective legislator.
"People will judge me as Capri first and a Cafaro second," she said.
The charge against John Cafaro states that in 2004 "he caused the responsible official of the Capri Cafaro for Congress Committee to file with the FEC a quarterly report that falsely stated that he had contributed only $2,000 for the general election campaign," knowing he had also given a $10,000 loan to a member of the campaign staff.
The maximum any person can contribute to a federal candidate or an authorized committee was $2,000 for a general election and $2,000 for a primary election.
The charge against John Cafaro is not his first go-around with federal prosecutors. In 2002, he was fined $150,000 and placed on probation for bribing former U.S. Rep. Jim Traficant.
Prosecutors sought leniency for John Cafaro because he cooperated in their case against Traficant, who was convicted of corruption and sentenced to eight years in prison.
John Cafaro extended favors to Traficant expecting the congressman to help Cafaro's USAerospace obtain runway-lighting system contracts from the military. The company later folded.
Capri Cafaro received immunity from prosecution during the Traficant investigation. She would later say she accepted the immunity on the advice of her attorney, but that she "didn't need immunity protection for anything."
Capri Cafaro lost the 2004 election in the 14th District to incumbent Republican Steve LaTourette. She then sought the Democratic nomination for the 13th District seat in 2006 but lost to Betty Sutton, despite spending more than $1 million of her own money.
Ohio Democrats later in the year appointed her to the state senate seat vacated by Marc Dann, who was elected attorney general. In 2009, Cafaro became the senate minority leader.
While Capri Cafaro's political opponents might try and make hay out of her father's transgression, it's not likely to do much damage to her because people understand how one family member might want to help another, said John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron.
"It would be a much more serious problem potentially, if it had been someone unrelated to her," Green said, especially someone who does business with the federal government or a lobbyist.
Green also said he finds it credible that Capri Cafaro would not have known about the loan, even though it was given by her father to her campaign manager. As a full-time candidate, she would have been relying on others to handle various details of her campaign, he said.
Federal prosecutors accused former Youngstown mall developer John Cafaro of concealing a $10,000 loan to the campaign. They charged him Monday with making a false statement in connection with the loan, an offense that carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.
Cafaro's attorney Ralph Cascarilla said his client takes responsibility for his actions and plans to plead guilty.
"Although I wanted to help my daughter in her campaign, I made a mistake for which I am solely responsible," Cafaro said in a written statement. "As the investigation has determined, my daughter was not involved in any way."
Capri Cafaro also said Monday afternoon that she was not involved in the loan transaction. She said she learned during the investigation that the recipient was her former campaign chairman B.J. Schuerger, who is now a lobbyist in Columbus.
Schuerger's attorney John Climaco said his client did not violate the law in accepting the loan from John Cafaro. "Unfortunately Mr. Cafaro failed to report the loan," Climaco said.
Capri Cafaro said her father has made a habit of doing things and not telling her, "particularly things that he thinks I would not be supportive of."
Ethical questions have dogged Capri Cafaro in the past, but she doesn't think this latest incident will harm her political career because she has faith people will see her as an effective legislator.
"People will judge me as Capri first and a Cafaro second," she said.
The charge against John Cafaro states that in 2004 "he caused the responsible official of the Capri Cafaro for Congress Committee to file with the FEC a quarterly report that falsely stated that he had contributed only $2,000 for the general election campaign," knowing he had also given a $10,000 loan to a member of the campaign staff.
The maximum any person can contribute to a federal candidate or an authorized committee was $2,000 for a general election and $2,000 for a primary election.
The charge against John Cafaro is not his first go-around with federal prosecutors. In 2002, he was fined $150,000 and placed on probation for bribing former U.S. Rep. Jim Traficant.
Prosecutors sought leniency for John Cafaro because he cooperated in their case against Traficant, who was convicted of corruption and sentenced to eight years in prison.
John Cafaro extended favors to Traficant expecting the congressman to help Cafaro's USAerospace obtain runway-lighting system contracts from the military. The company later folded.
Capri Cafaro received immunity from prosecution during the Traficant investigation. She would later say she accepted the immunity on the advice of her attorney, but that she "didn't need immunity protection for anything."
Capri Cafaro lost the 2004 election in the 14th District to incumbent Republican Steve LaTourette. She then sought the Democratic nomination for the 13th District seat in 2006 but lost to Betty Sutton, despite spending more than $1 million of her own money.
Ohio Democrats later in the year appointed her to the state senate seat vacated by Marc Dann, who was elected attorney general. In 2009, Cafaro became the senate minority leader.
While Capri Cafaro's political opponents might try and make hay out of her father's transgression, it's not likely to do much damage to her because people understand how one family member might want to help another, said John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron.
"It would be a much more serious problem potentially, if it had been someone unrelated to her," Green said, especially someone who does business with the federal government or a lobbyist.
Green also said he finds it credible that Capri Cafaro would not have known about the loan, even though it was given by her father to her campaign manager. As a full-time candidate, she would have been relying on others to handle various details of her campaign, he said.
Posted by rhbole
February 22, 2010, 3:16PM
She went to middle school with me when I was a kid. She used to run for class president. Even back then daddy was paying for expensive posters with glitter to put around school. He also would send a limo and a body guard to park outside school all day. Some things never change.
February 22, 2010, 3:16PM
She went to middle school with me when I was a kid. She used to run for class president. Even back then daddy was paying for expensive posters with glitter to put around school. He also would send a limo and a body guard to park outside school all day. Some things never change.
March 13, 2009
Categories: Ohio
The return of Capri Cafaro
One of the most colorful characters in Ohio politics could be running another congressional campaign – but this time she may have a credible chance at winning. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) is being seriously considered by Gov. Ted Stickland as an appointee to replace Lee Fisher as lieutenant governor. If Ryan gets the nod, then Capri Cafaro is expected to run in a special election for his vacant seat.When she last ran for Congress, she was a 20-something shopping mall heiress who spent millions of her family fortune in unsuccessful attempts to win two different congressional seats (against Reps. Steve LaTourette and Betty Sutton). She was mocked by much of the party establishment, who viewed her as trying to buy a congressional seat – and for inflating a resume since she had just been out of college for several years at the time. But since then, she has become part of the establishment. She was appointed to Youngstown-area State Senate seat in 2007, won election in her own right and became the minority leader in the chamber. So if Ryan gets the appointment, don’t be surprised if Cafaro makes another congressional bid – and this time starts as the front-runner.
The return of Capri Cafaro
One of the most colorful characters in Ohio politics could be running another congressional campaign – but this time she may have a credible chance at winning. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) is being seriously considered by Gov. Ted Stickland as an appointee to replace Lee Fisher as lieutenant governor. If Ryan gets the nod, then Capri Cafaro is expected to run in a special election for his vacant seat.When she last ran for Congress, she was a 20-something shopping mall heiress who spent millions of her family fortune in unsuccessful attempts to win two different congressional seats (against Reps. Steve LaTourette and Betty Sutton). She was mocked by much of the party establishment, who viewed her as trying to buy a congressional seat – and for inflating a resume since she had just been out of college for several years at the time. But since then, she has become part of the establishment. She was appointed to Youngstown-area State Senate seat in 2007, won election in her own right and became the minority leader in the chamber. So if Ryan gets the appointment, don’t be surprised if Cafaro makes another congressional bid – and this time starts as the front-runner.
A former county judge in Ohio has been sentenced to 27 months in federal prison for getting a sham loan from a business executive with dozens of civil cases before her court.
Judge sentenced in federal court
Ashley C. HeeneyLegal News Reporter
Federal Judge Sara Lioi gave retired Mahoning County Judge Maureen Cronin the maximum sentence Tuesday in U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, for not reporting an $18,000 loan on her state financial disclosure statements in 2006 and 2007. It is a message to the legal community and all citizens, Lioi said, that misconduct of a public official must not go un-checked.Attorney J. Gerald Ingram, representing Cronin in USA v. Maureen A. Cronin, said his 56-year-old client would surrender her law license voluntarily, which means she can never serve as a judge or practice as a lawyer again. Cronin, a Youngstown resident who served on the Mahoning Common Pleas bench from 1995 until her premature retirement in 2007, apologized tearfully in the courtroom. The loan she took was from business executive Flora Cafaro, part-owner of shopping mall developer Cafaro Co.Lioi sentenced Cronin to 27 months in federal prison.According to Lioi, the maximum sentence was imposed to “adequately promote respect of the law and serve as a deterrent for others to show that actions do not go unchecked.”While in prison, Cronin is required to give 25 percent of her monthly income to the government. Lioi also ordered her to pay $200 in court costs and fined her $4,000, payable immediately to the U.S. District Court. After her release from prison, Cronin will be on supervised release for three years. She must get treatment for drug/alcohol addiction and mental health. Lioi also ordered Cronin not to participate in gambling of any kind, including the Internet and the lottery. Plus, she cannot enter gambling establishments.“I accept complete responsibility,” Cronin said in court, citing the deaths of her mother and boyfriend several years ago as the factors in her downward spiral.In 2005, Cronin was found guilty of operating a vehicle while impaired. She was elected to a third term in 2006, resigned from the bench in 2007, and about two months later, was convicted of a second OVI. She was ordered to do jail time and put on probation.For Cronin’s sentencing on Tuesday, the federal court considered the fact that her crime of not reporting the loan was committed while she was on probation.In December 2009, Cronin pleaded guilty to two felony counts of honest services mail fraud. When she took the no-interest loan from Cafaro, no payment schedule was made. During sentencing it was revealed the purpose of the loan was to satisfy her addictive habits.The Ohio Supreme Court requires judges to annually submit disclosure statements listing the names of all creditors living or transacting business in Ohio to whom the judges owed, or had owed, during the calendar year, more than $1,000.Cronin said in court that her actions caused her to lose her teaching job (at Youngstown State University) and prematurely retire from the bench. “I’m truly sorry for letting down the community, my family and friends, and most importantly the legal profession,” Cronin said.In 1988, Cronin became Youngstown’s first city prosecutor. She became Mahoning County’s first female judge in 1994. The voters re-elected her in 2000 and 2006.“She’s personally mortified,” Ingram told the court Tuesday, standing next to Cronin. “She’s brought it on herself. She avoids leaving the house, with the fear of running into someone she knows.” “Ordinarily in this business, we punish bad people for bad things. Today, it’s a good person who lost her way.”Because his client admitted fault, sought treatment and is at low risk for recidivism, Ingram requested a sentence of 21 months in prison.Attorney Justin Roberts, representing the US, asked for 24 to 27 months, saying the court should let the public know that “public officials are not held to a different set of rules.”“The people of Mahoning County, the litigants, the people of the State of Ohio deserve better. They deserve to know whether public officials are being bought and sold and paid for.”“It really shocks people’s trust in their judicial system and the people they’ve elected,” he said.Roberts, accompanied by an FBI agent, said they were asking the court to send a message to other public officials not to be compromised, not to take money and to submit to full disclosure.Nearly 50 cases involving Cafaro’s business came before Cronin when she was judge. The majority were dismissed or settled and several were deferred to a magistrate, according to the court.Once a prosecutor, a judge and a professor, “soon she’ll be a prison inmate,” Ingram said, adding that it is difficult to imagine a bigger fall from grace.“What matters is she had interests that she failed to disclose, and she continued to preside over cases,” Lioi said.“Such conduct tends to erode our courts and system of justice in this country.
Source;http://www.dlnnews.com/news_fs.php?story=1
Ashley C. HeeneyLegal News Reporter
Federal Judge Sara Lioi gave retired Mahoning County Judge Maureen Cronin the maximum sentence Tuesday in U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, for not reporting an $18,000 loan on her state financial disclosure statements in 2006 and 2007. It is a message to the legal community and all citizens, Lioi said, that misconduct of a public official must not go un-checked.Attorney J. Gerald Ingram, representing Cronin in USA v. Maureen A. Cronin, said his 56-year-old client would surrender her law license voluntarily, which means she can never serve as a judge or practice as a lawyer again. Cronin, a Youngstown resident who served on the Mahoning Common Pleas bench from 1995 until her premature retirement in 2007, apologized tearfully in the courtroom. The loan she took was from business executive Flora Cafaro, part-owner of shopping mall developer Cafaro Co.Lioi sentenced Cronin to 27 months in federal prison.According to Lioi, the maximum sentence was imposed to “adequately promote respect of the law and serve as a deterrent for others to show that actions do not go unchecked.”While in prison, Cronin is required to give 25 percent of her monthly income to the government. Lioi also ordered her to pay $200 in court costs and fined her $4,000, payable immediately to the U.S. District Court. After her release from prison, Cronin will be on supervised release for three years. She must get treatment for drug/alcohol addiction and mental health. Lioi also ordered Cronin not to participate in gambling of any kind, including the Internet and the lottery. Plus, she cannot enter gambling establishments.“I accept complete responsibility,” Cronin said in court, citing the deaths of her mother and boyfriend several years ago as the factors in her downward spiral.In 2005, Cronin was found guilty of operating a vehicle while impaired. She was elected to a third term in 2006, resigned from the bench in 2007, and about two months later, was convicted of a second OVI. She was ordered to do jail time and put on probation.For Cronin’s sentencing on Tuesday, the federal court considered the fact that her crime of not reporting the loan was committed while she was on probation.In December 2009, Cronin pleaded guilty to two felony counts of honest services mail fraud. When she took the no-interest loan from Cafaro, no payment schedule was made. During sentencing it was revealed the purpose of the loan was to satisfy her addictive habits.The Ohio Supreme Court requires judges to annually submit disclosure statements listing the names of all creditors living or transacting business in Ohio to whom the judges owed, or had owed, during the calendar year, more than $1,000.Cronin said in court that her actions caused her to lose her teaching job (at Youngstown State University) and prematurely retire from the bench. “I’m truly sorry for letting down the community, my family and friends, and most importantly the legal profession,” Cronin said.In 1988, Cronin became Youngstown’s first city prosecutor. She became Mahoning County’s first female judge in 1994. The voters re-elected her in 2000 and 2006.“She’s personally mortified,” Ingram told the court Tuesday, standing next to Cronin. “She’s brought it on herself. She avoids leaving the house, with the fear of running into someone she knows.” “Ordinarily in this business, we punish bad people for bad things. Today, it’s a good person who lost her way.”Because his client admitted fault, sought treatment and is at low risk for recidivism, Ingram requested a sentence of 21 months in prison.Attorney Justin Roberts, representing the US, asked for 24 to 27 months, saying the court should let the public know that “public officials are not held to a different set of rules.”“The people of Mahoning County, the litigants, the people of the State of Ohio deserve better. They deserve to know whether public officials are being bought and sold and paid for.”“It really shocks people’s trust in their judicial system and the people they’ve elected,” he said.Roberts, accompanied by an FBI agent, said they were asking the court to send a message to other public officials not to be compromised, not to take money and to submit to full disclosure.Nearly 50 cases involving Cafaro’s business came before Cronin when she was judge. The majority were dismissed or settled and several were deferred to a magistrate, according to the court.Once a prosecutor, a judge and a professor, “soon she’ll be a prison inmate,” Ingram said, adding that it is difficult to imagine a bigger fall from grace.“What matters is she had interests that she failed to disclose, and she continued to preside over cases,” Lioi said.“Such conduct tends to erode our courts and system of justice in this country.
Source;http://www.dlnnews.com/news_fs.php?story=1
JUST GIVE THE DEGENERATE GAMBLING JUDGE A FAT LOAN TO SQUARE HER BILLS WHILE SHE RULES ON CASES YOU HAVE PENDING BEFORE HER. NEEDLESS TO SAY THESE JUDGES PULL IN A SIX FIGURE INCOME, BUT FOR SOME, IT IS NEVER ENOUGH!
That's very nice. You have got a good post. Thanks for the links given. Hope they show us some way.
ReplyDelete