Attorney pleads guilty to fraud in campaign funding scamBy Terry Frieden/CNN
May 27, 1999
Web posted at: 2:50 p.m. EDT (1850 GMT)
WASHINGTON (May 27) -- A prominent New Jersey Republican attorney pleaded guilty Thursday to illegally funneling contributions to the 1996 Senate campaign of Sen. Robert Torricelli, the Justice Department announced Thursday.
In a plea agreement with the Justice Department's Campaign Finance Task Force, Berek Don, the former Republican chairman in Bergen County, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to mail fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to commit campaign financing violations.
Don, 51, of Fort Lee, New Jersey, appeared in federal court in Newark, where he also pleaded guilty to separate fraud charges in a real estate scheme.
Torricelli, a New Jersey Democrat, recently has been the most vocal critic of Attorney General Janet Reno on the China spying scandal. Reno oversees the Campaign Finance Task Force.
According to the plea agreement, Don agreed to help find straw donors to write personal checks to Torricelli, the Democratic candidate for U.S.Senate. Don then reimbursed the donors with cash from one of Don's clients.
The Justice Department says even though Don led the Bergen County Republican Party at the time of the offense, he agreed to the plan because his client needed help in meeting a fund-raising goal he had promised to the Torricelli campaign.
Officials say Don received an $11,000 check drawn on a corporate account. These funds were used to reimburse employees, clients, and other people associated with the law firm which agreed to write personal checks to Torricelli's campaign.
Don has promised to cooperate with the Justice Department's continuing campaign finance probe. The maximum penalty for the three offenses to which he pleaded guilty total 11 years in prison and $600,000 dollars in fines.
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