Jenicar Owner Admits $25G Driveway, Masonry Work By Jim Shea (Reprinted from Amboy Beacon, Sept. 1, 2010)
FREEHOLD — The President of a Kearny contractor that did paving, curbs and other infrastructure work for the City of Perth Amboy admitted last week before Superior Court Judge Anthony Mellaci Jr. that her firm performed $25,000 worth of free paving and masonry work in 2002 at the High Street home of indicted former Mayor Joseph Vas. Through its President Helena Godinho, Jenicar Builders Contractors Co. Inc.
pleaded guilty to Conspiracy To Commit Official Misconduct, a third-degree offense. Godinho succeeded her husband, Fernando Godinho, who died in November 2004. If the company, which was charged in a May 21, 2009 indictment along with Vas and longtime Mayor’s Aide Melvin Ramos, were convicted at-trial, it faced a fine of up to $150,000 and permanent debarment from public contracts. Under a plea agreement struck by state Deputy Attorneys General Diane Deal and Pearl Minato, Jenicar must pay a $45,000 fine, and its principals must cooperate in the ongoing investigation of Vas and Ramos, according to a prepared statement released by the state Attorney General’s Office. Jenicar’s sentencing is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 18. Other state charges are pending against Vas and Ramos. Vas, who also is a former 19th Legislative District Assemblyman, faces multiple second-degree counts of Conspiracy and Official Misconduct, among other charges. The Attorney General’s Office noted that the same indictment including Jenicar charges Vas with four distinct criminal schemes. Conferencing on charges contained in the two state indictments against Vas and Ramos is planned to get started on Monday, Nov. 4. Recently, two officials whose firm oversaw construction on the still-unfinished $89 million Public Safety/Municipal Court/Community Center Complex, New Brunswick and Amboy Avenues, President Frank Dominguez and Vice President Richard Briggs of the Imperial Construction Group Inc., Elizabeth, which oversaw construction on the building, pleaded guilty in Superior Court to Submitting A False Government Contract. Dominguez and Briggs admitted before Mellaci that they padded Imperial’s billing by $58,006 to pay for a catering job in conjunction with a “Grand Opening” celebration on behalf of Vas at the incomplete Complex as a way to enhance the former Mayor’s 2008 campaign for re-election, which he lost to political newcomer Wilda Diaz by almost 1,200 votes. Dominguez said that Ramos and then-Business Administrator Donald Perlee suggested in a telephone call in April 2008 that the ceremony’s cost could be recouped by Imperial by inflating its billings for inspections. Perlee, who has not been charged, is cooperating in the investigation, according to Deal. The state’s cases against Vas and Ramos have been transferred to Monmouth County from Middlesex County because Ramos is related to Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves, sitting in New Brunswick, through marriage.
According to the same indictment, between January and July 2006, Vas and Ramos allegedly solicited city employees and others to make fraudulent contributions to Vas’ 2006 campaign for the Democratic nomination for the 13th Congressional District. Ramos allegedly paid cash to the people he solicited to reimburse them for writing personal checks payable to “Vas For Congress.” The Attorney General’s Office explained that Vas and Ramos are charged with Money-Laundering because by structuring funds into the campaign through people who falsely appeared to be making personal contributions, they allegedly sought to avoid applicable state and federal currency-transaction reporting requirements in connection with deposits into the campaign account at Commerce Bank. Banks are required to report cash deposits of $10,000 or more under federal reporting requirements. Vas and Ramos allegedly requested city employees to solicit contributions during work-hours, solicited city employees and others during work-hours, and used city facilities and property for campaign activities, the Attorney General’s Office said. According to the same indictment, between November 2004 and July 20, 2005, Vas allegedly stole $5,926 from the city by unlawfully-authorizing the submission to the city and approval of payment of a personal medical bill for
$5,322 he received from the Mayo Clinic of Jacksonville, FL, and a personal eyeglasses bill for $604 he received from Lenscrafters, the Attorney General’s Office said. Deal and Minato are assigned to the state’s cases, and the investigation was conducted by Deal, Sgt. Dino Dettorre and Det. Benjamin Kukis, assisted by Lt. Daniel O’Brien, Sgt. Robert McGrath, Dets. Lee Bailey, Melissa Calkin, Lisa Cawley, Shaun Egan, Kiersten Pentony and Robert Stemmer, and Civil Investigator Joseph Salvatore. In March 2009, the Division of Criminal Justice obtained an indictment charging Vas and city employees with conspiring from 2003 to 2007 to fraudulently-obtain payment of $6,235 from the Perth Amboy Recreation Department for his and their personal expenses, the Attorney General’s Office said. Also, Vas and his driver, Anthony Jones, were charged in a scheme in which Vas allegedly rigged a public lottery so that Jones won the opportunity to buy an affordable home through the Perth Amboy HOME Program, the Attorney General’s Office said. Those charges are also pending. The Attorney General’s Office noted that “indictments are merely accusations, and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.” Hearings are scheduled to get underway in U.S. District Court on Monday, Sept. 13, with Vas political advisor Raymond Geneske, his former high school History teacher, and former Human Services Director Jeffrey Gumbs scheduled to testify against Vas under plea-agreements dropping some of the charges against them. Geneske was sentenced in June in Middlesex County Superior Court in New Brunswick to three years probation after admitting accepting a substantial contribution from local developer Eddie Trujillo, who has not been charged, and funneling that money into the Vas Congressional campaign coffers through an elaborate “straw-donor” procedure allegedly used to obscure the money’s origin. In the same venue, Gumbs was sentenced to up to 364 days in jail, a probationary term and 100 hours of community service after admitting that he conspired with Vas to steal some of the $6,235 in misspent City of Perth Amboy funds used to pay for personal purchases and expenses for Vas and himself, including $1,200 in city funds to pay for his son and the former Mayor’s son to attend basketball camp. After attorney Alan Zegas, representing Vas, told U.S. District Court Judge Susan Wigenton that he strongly-opposes any references to pending state charges in the federal trial as being prejudicial to his client, Wigenton agreed to hold a separate hearing on that issue. Under their plea-agreements, Geneske and Gumbs are required to testify truthfully against Vas in both his federal and state trials.
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