"Lawyer in Conn. treasury scandal gets 2 years" September 2, 2011
NEW HAVEN, Conn.—A corporate lawyer was sentenced Friday to two years in prison for his role in the 1990s Connecticut state treasurer's bribery scandal.
Charles Spadoni, the former vice president and general counsel for Boston-based Triumph Capital Group Inc., was sentenced on an obstruction of justice conviction in U.S. District Court in New Haven. Prosecutors sought a prison term of nearly three years for Spadoni, who argued that he shouldn't receive more than 16 months.
Spadoni, of West Chester, Pa., was accused of getting former state Treasurer Paul Silvester to invest $200 million of state pension money with Triumph Capital by giving $1 million job contracts to Silvester's associates.
Pretty good return, huh?
Silvester, who was treasurer from July 1997 to January 1999, served two years in prison for taking bribes and kickbacks. Spadoni was sentenced in 2003 to three years in prison on numerous convictions, but nearly all were reversed by a federal appeals court in 2008.
Subsequent government scandals in Connecticut brought down former Gov. John G. Rowland, his top aide and a major contractor, as well as two mayors of large cities and their associates. The scandals led to a derisive nickname for a state sometimes called the Land of Steady Habits: Corrupticut.
Several prominent people were targeted in the corruption investigation involving Spadoni.
Among them was former Connecticut NAACP leader Ben Andrews, who served two years in prison for bribery and fraud. Prosecutors said he improperly collected $750,000 in fees to help steer a $150 million investment of state pension funds in 1998. The scandal also ensnared Silvester's brother, brother-in-law and mistress; a Boston financier; and a former assistant treasurer.
Silvester, who was freed from federal custody in July 2005, admitted to investing hundreds of millions of dollars in state pension funds in exchange for cash and jobs for his cronies, some of whom kicked back money to Silvester in the form of cash or campaign contributions.
The scheme was sometimes hidden by drawing up contracts for cronies to receive finder's fees. Such fees are paid in the world of high finance to people who arrange big investment deals. In Silvester's case, prosecutors said the finders did little or no work, and the fees were paid to bribe Silvester to make investment decisions.
Other cronies got contracts for jobs, for which they also did little or no work....
All state governments and politicians seem the same, don't they?
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