Giuliani's Kerik Woes Resurface

Washington Post: Informant Sheds Light On Candidate's Relationship With Ex-Police Chief

(Washingtonpost.com) 
"One of the problems with Larry's story is it is so complex," said retired three-star Marine Gen. Charles H. Pitman, a Purple Heart recipient who befriended Ray a decade ago. "It is like reading a novel, you can't put it down but it goes on and on. In fact, he has been straightforward. He was anxious to help the government. He was kind of a wannabe minuteman."

The Evidence

Larry Ray began providing New York authorities with evidence of Bernard Kerik's wrongdoing in December 2004 when the former New York police commissioner was nominated for the post of homeland security secretary. The nomination was pulled within days because of questions about Kerik's background.

Ray turned over voice recordings, e-mails, photographs, city documents and other items outlined in a 33-page roster of evidence. That material offers new details about the Interstate matter.

Records, for instance, show that Interstate first faxed a copy of its application to the Giuliani administration to Kerik in November 1998. A separate affidavit that Ray filed with New Jersey gambling authorities, which rejected Interstate for business, also alleges that Kerik arranged for meetings between company representatives and gambling authorities.

Kerik told Ray repeatedly that Giuliani was aware of Interstate's desire to secure city contracts, Ray alleged in an interview with The Post. Ray added that he once sat in Kerik's office as Kerik discussed the matter in a phone call with Giuliani. After hanging up, Ray said, Kerik went over to City Hall to meet with Giuliani.

Connolly said that Giuliani never had a conversation with Kerik regarding Interstate at the time. "The only conversation he recalls ever having with Bernie regarding Interstate occurred in December 2004 when the press was reporting that relationship in connection with events at the time," Connolly said, adding, "There were never any one-on-one meetings with Larry Ray and Rudy Giuliani ever."

On April 29, 1999, Kerik sent Ray an e-mail titled "Important!!!!!!!!!!!!" that said that the mayor had appointed Raymond Casey, one of his relatives, to a top job at the city's Trade Waste Commission, which Interstate was trying to influence. The e-mail was turned over to authorities and The Post.

"Rudy's nephew in the Tradewaste has been appointed from Inspector General to Deputy Commissioner of Investigations," Kerik wrote. "That's how he's aware of everything going on. He's overseeing all of the investigations. That could be bad for me at the moment but I think overall good for us."

In the same e-mail, Kerik lamented his problems paying for his new apartment. He also mentioned that his brother Donald was looking for a new job. Within months, Interstate started renovations at Kerik's apartment and hired Donald.

Interstate President Frank DiTommaso wrote to the trade waste agency to announce his new employee. "The day to day operations of Interstate Materials Corp. have been taken over by Mr. Don Kerik," the note said. "Don is a fine individual and will continue to provide your agency with full cooperation."

In July 1999, Bernard Kerik arranged a meeting with Casey and a New York Department of Investigations agent at a Manhattan restaurant to discuss Interstate, according to the recent federal indictment of Kerik. Kerik "questioned" city officials' concerns about the company having alleged mob ties. "I put my reputation and integrity on the line" for the company, he wrote in an e-mail to the company's owners after that meeting.

Kerik arranged a subsequent meeting between city officials and an Interstate representative later that summer in his Department of Corrections office, the indictment states.

As Kerik pressed Interstate's case, he asked Ray for money. "I've got to take care of those things we talked about a few weeks ago," he said. "If possible, I need about 2 to 2,5 to take care of it," Kerik wrote in an e-mail in May 1999 asking for $2,000 to $2,500. A few weeks later, Kerik sought more. "If possible I don't want to spend any of the down payment for the apartment and I've got a few things that I've got to pay off," he wrote to Ray. "Can we spare 2500 to get me by until something else comes up."

The materials Ray provided to law enforcement also suggest that he and Kerik discussed a range of private business proposals. Kerik sent and received numerous faxes from his city office addressed to Ray about several possible deals, including one in 1998 titled "Proposed Acquisition of Sugar From Brazil for Russia." Another in 1997 from a major international bank concerned possible real estate transactions in New York and Russia. The investigative files give no indication whether any of the deals occurred. Ray also alleges that Kerik notified him when Giuliani planned to appoint Kerik in 1997 to New York's gambling regulatory commission. Ray had an application for a license to run a riverboat, according to the documents he turned over to police.

"Kerik was real excited about that. He wanted me to purchase the ship and do the retrofitting," Ray said. "It was supposed to be offshore. He would get 50 percent. We would set up a company to own the ship." That plan never materialized.

Parting Ways

Kerik and Ray began parting ways in 2000 around the time Ray was indicted on charges of securities fraud in connection with the mob stock scheme. The indictment surprised Ray and his lawyers because Ray had worked with the FBI as a confidential informant to make the case, according to FBI documents. The documents show that the FBI eventually came to believe that Ray had not told them everything about his own role in the scheme.

In a November 2001 e-mail exchange, Ray reached out to Kerik for help. "I am sorry I have to burden you with any of this at all. But I need you and my family needs you. I have done my best to keep you out of it all along. . . . As a friend I was mindful of the sensitivity of your position. . . . Now I need you as a friend to do nothing more than be willing to state the truth as to the things that you do know."

Kerik's stinging reply arrived the next morning. "In the event that I am called to testify, I must tell you that my recollection of the events is not consistent with what you remember. And this would have a severely negative impact on your credibility." Ray eventually pleaded guilty to the securities charge in 2003 and was sentenced to house arrest and probation.

When Kerik's nomination to head up the Department of Homeland Security was announced in 2004, Ray went public with his allegations about Kerik and Interstate, giving an interview to the New York Daily News and going to authorities in New York and New Jersey. Kerik's nomination was quickly withdrawn.

The next year, Ray's life continued its downward spiral. His marriage fell apart, and he became embroiled in the custody battle. Ray's New Jersey home was raided by police in connection with the dispute. Eventually, the case led to Ray's probation violation -- he was accused of ignoring a restraining order to stay away from his children -- and he was sent to prison.

Ray became convinced that Kerik was exerting influence behind the scenes to damage his reputation with police and prosecutors in New Jersey. He said that a local prosecutor told him "the party line is to get Larry Ray." That prosecutor, Michele D'Onofrio, concluded that the police search of Ray's home was illegal and recently was interviewed by the FBI about the search, according to court records.

Ray filed a civil rights lawsuit against local authorities about the search. His 18-year-old daughter hired Florida lawyer Mark Gelman, a specialist in child sex abuse cases, to prepare a lawsuit that was filed last Friday alleging that she was abused by her mother and one of her relatives. A lawyer for the wife has said that Ray has repeatedly made such allegations and that they have always been determined to be unfounded. Messages left for Ray's ex-wife were not returned.

The ugliness of the New Jersey custody case is what prompted Baumgarten, whose law license was recently restored after it was revoked over billing issues, to reach out to Segarra, the former Giuliani deputy mayor.

"It just sickened me what was going on against the children," said Baumgarten, a retired brigadier general who was a deputy mayor in New York. He was credited during the 1970s with overseeing a law enforcement effort to clean up vice-infested Midtown Manhattan.

[crater7]

CROOKS HONOR !!!!!

AWE YES, KERIK, THE GUY THAT BUSH WANTED TO LEAD AMERICA''S SECURITY. HMMMMMMMMMM

RUDY''S AIDES, RAY, IS NOT CREDIBLE.......

VOTE FOR RUDY..................

[neoconrcrazy]

the "hero" of 911 !

what hype, what chutzpah!

this guy is dirty and no amount of "vetting" will explain away his unsavory brand of politics.

the real heros of 911 are the NY police & fire departments - not Rudy G.

[sgtrds]

Rudy might as well wrap it up and go home. No one is going to pick a sleazey, adulterous, dirty mob-connected, goon, as president.

Posted by kansas1946 at 10:26 PM : Dec 19, 2007

Well I don''t know. I mean some ignorant people voted for a lying, cheating, moronic, idiotic, alcoholic, ex-coke using, yellowbellied, pus*sy, gutless coward of a spoiled frat momma''s boy the last two elections, so anything is possible.

[kansas1946]

Rudy might as well wrap it up and go home. No one is going to pick a sleazey, adulterous, dirty mob-connected, goon, as president.

[rowdytexan2]

These two guys are just SOME of Guiliani scumbag associates. They haven''t even gotten into his relationship with the terrorist scum YET!

Too bad the Neocons pet rat is being scumbled out before they can get him elected.

[prinzowhales]

Romney ''inspiring''? Perhaps,...if you are a shut-in or a desk monkey in some cubicle in ''ell...a twisted little Bush supporter looking for another father substitute to replace ''the daddy of the country'' as Bush once described himself, and continue the wars that this monster lied us into....

Romney gained millions using off shore tax havens-- that are built into the IRS tax code...Hucksterbee says he''s going to get rid of the Income Tax...He plans to replace it with the "Fairtax" which is going to transfer the entire tax burden to the shoulders of Americans and let people who take their earnings out of the country to escape untaxed...

The more you listen to the two of them, the more you realize they are cut from the same miserable cloth. Both of them are concerned with selling working Americans a pant load of ''change'' which in Republicanese means ''absolute inertia''. I''m sure the fool vote that put Bush in office will be behind them like a trail of toilet paper hanging from the buttocks of a fat woman hurrying to Fanny Farmers.

[sgtrds]

He laid down with dirty dogs (the mob) and he got back up with fleas. Goodbye Rudy. We won''t miss you at all.

[mediapreachr]

These issues keep coming up because Giuliani is a sleazy dirtbag who has more concern for his political agendas, se.xual liaisons and power grabs then the people of NY or the rest of the nation. He''''s a thug.

If, by some bizarre twist of fate, this man ends up in the White House we will all regret it.
Posted by roger_inkart at 01:47 PM : Dec 19, 2007''
Don''t worry,Giuliani campaign is going into the gutter;he''s going to crash and burn,giving the media material for years to come.

[mediapreachr]

Look at the photo, and behold the horrors of inbreeding.
Posted by FeelFree1 at 02:55 PM : Dec 19, 2007
Rofl.Who needs writers when we got our own clowns.

[usbrit-2009]

I thought Drudge was dead. He''s become so irrelevant I hadn''t heard anything from him in years. But I guess this shows he''s up to the same old retarded high school scuttlebut that he''s so good at and that the righties follow avidly with their fly open and ready to go.

[pollroller1]

Y''all need to take a good look a Ron Paul. He is the right man to be president. That is if honesty and good old common sense mean anything.

[feelfree1]

Look at the photo, and behold the horrors of inbreeding.

[roger_inkart]

These issues keep coming up because Giuliani is a sleazy dirtbag who has more concern for his political agendas, se.xual liaisons and power grabs then the people of NY or the rest of the nation. He''s a thug.

If, by some bizarre twist of fate, this man ends up in the White House we will all regret it.

[blancadebree]

Wearing dresses, mob ties, who does Rudy think he is? J. Edgar Hoover?

http://blancadebree.blogspot.com

[abbe91]

And what about Giuliani''s ties with terrorists ?

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0748,barrett,78478,6.html

[nolalou]

tomdawg6, I try to ignore comments from Ron Paul supporters, I really do, but you people are so uninformed about that nut job, it scares me! Ron Paul wants us out of the UN, NATO, and just about any other international organization you can think of! He is a radical isolationist. He also wants to get rid of goverment agencies like FEMA, MEDICARE, and MEDICADE. FEMA is in desperate need of reform, but not elimination! If you think he''s an alternative to the Christian right-wingers, think again, he doesn''t believe in the seperation of church & state either!
For god''s sake, former KKK leader David Duke is for this guy!

[briannorwood]

perception5:

Mitt Romney inspirational? I guess if you consider a guy who''s flip-flopped on virtually all the issues important to the GOP base (gun control, abortion, taxes, gay rights)-- then he''s your man!

[agarwal1]

watch Guliyani pulling hairs Wig of his Chin pole aide
.... caught on camera !!!

Watch the video... first time..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J16yZMkRBg&feature=related

[fornicario]

September 11th made this combative New Yorker "America''s Mayor." Will he also be America''s president?

I wonder who America''s Mistress will be then?

[ov442]

We should still vote for Giuliani, hes the ring leader of the new generation of NYC crime. He got rid of the old generation to make way for his cronies, like Rupert Murdoch, Kerik, etc.