Ex-Vas Aide Sentenced

(Reprinted from Amboy Beacon, Feb. 2, 2011)

PERTH AMBOY — Former Board of Education member Raymond Geneske, a key

political advisor to convicted former Mayor Joseph Vas, was sentenced last week

by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Wigenton, sitting in Newark, to two years

probation and a $10,000 fine in accordance with a guilty pleas he had

entered last year before the Judge.

Geneske, 75, agreed last year to cooperate with federal and state

investigators by testifying truthfully against Vas, 54, and longtime Mayor’s Aide

Melvin Ramos, 53, in federal and state corruption trials of both men.

Geneske also was sentenced to three years probation and fined $5,000 by

Superior Court Judge Frederick DeVesa, sitting in New Brunswick, after pleading

guilty in June 2009 to a charge of Money-Laundering in connection with the

former Mayor’s 2006 campaign for the Democratic Congressional nomination in

the 13th Congressional District against former Assembly Speaker Albio Sires.

Under oath, Geneske told DeVesa at that time that he solicited $30,000 from

city developer Eddie Trujillo in exchange for a promise from Vas to provide

$3.5 million in Regional Contribution Agreement (RCA) low-income housing

funds.

City employees were used as “conduit-contributors” or “straw-donors” to

hide the source of the $30,000, which exceeded the legal $2,000 federal

campaign contribution limit.

The former Perth Amboy Democratic Chairman and Board of Education member

also pleaded guilty to a parallel federal charge before Wigenton. The

probationary terms will run concurrently.

Wigenton remarked that the use of “straw-donors” is “business-as-usual”

in New Jersey political campaigns.

Geneske testified against Vas and Ramos in their federal trial last

October, but there was no state trial after Vas and Ramos accepted a plea-bargain

and received state sentences concurrent with their federal prison terms.

Federal sentencing for Vas and Ramos is scheduled for Feb. 22 and 23,

respectively.

Neither Trujillo nor the “straw-donors” have been charged by either state

or federal agencies.