Bernard Kerik, recently hired as a security advisor for President Bharrat Jagdeo, is likely to be charged with several felonies in the US, including tax evasion and conspiracy to commit wiretapping.
The Washington Post on Saturday quoted legal sources as saying that during a recent meeting, federal prosecutors told Kerik’s attorneys that they are preparing to charge him with filing false information to the government when US President George Bush nominated him to serve in his cabinet. Kerik, the former New York City Police Commissioner, was nominated by Bush to be the Secretary of Homeland Security in 2004, but he was forced to withdraw his name from consideration for failing to pay social security taxes for his nanny.
Since then, Kerik and his security firm, the Kerik Group, have held a number of security contracts in Jordan, Iraq and other Middle East hotspots. More recently, he was contracted to provide security services in Trinidad and Tobago and as a security advisor for Guyana. Kerik was contracted by government at the start of the year to provide general advisory services to President Jagdeo and Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee. Kerik’s hiring for the advisory post – he has a one year renewable contract – has been met with much criticism owing to the allegations surrounding his professional conduct.
According to the Post, Kerik’s indictment could set the stage for a courtroom battle that would draw attention to his extensive business and political dealings with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who personally recommended him to Bush for the cabinet. Giuliani, the front-runner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, has since called the recommendation a mistake.
Legal sources directly familiar with the investigation said the former mayor is not in any legal jeopardy because the inquiry is ongoing. Additionally, they pointed out that Giuliani and his consulting firm have cooperated in the FBI’s long-running investigation of Kerik.
In addition to charges involving filing false information, the unnamed sources told the Post that prosecutors are prepared to charge Kerik with violating federal tax laws, alleging that he did not declare on his tax returns gifts he received while serving as New York’s corrections commissioner, including costly renovations to an apartment he had bought. The FBI is investigating loans Kerik received while he was in private business with Giuliani as well as information that he had omitted from a mortgage application.
Last month, Kerik turned down an offer to plead guilty to federal charges that would have required him to serve prison time. His attorney, Kenneth Breen, said in an interview that his client had done nothing wrong. “He’s not going to plead to something that he didn’t do,” Breen said.
On Friday night Giuliani’s office declined to comment on Kerik, and instead referred to remarks the former mayor made earlier this week. “I hope, when people evaluate me, they evaluate the things that I think I did that were wrong and that were mistakes and the things that I did that were right, and I think the public record has been one largely of great success,” Giuliani said then.
Legal sources also said the US attorney’s office in New York City is threatening to charge Kerik with conspiracy to commit illegal wiretapping in his dealings with the 2006 Republican candidate for New York attorney general, Jeanine Pirro. After Kerik left the Giuliani firm, he arranged for two off-duty Giuliani firm employees to conduct surveillance on Pirro’s husband. Pirro and Kerik also discussed bugging a boat where Pirro suspected her husband was having an extra-marital affair. Kerik was heard on a wiretap telling Pirro that he did not want to do the bugging because it was illegal.
Kerik’s legal team has signalled its plan to fight any federal indictment, initiating an internal appeal to Justice Department officials about the possible tax charges – a move that could delay any indictment for at least several weeks, the legal sources said.
After Kerik’s nomination to head the Department of Homeland Security, a number of other issues surfaced, including favours he did for romantic partners – he once dispatched a homicide detective to find his girlfriend’s lost cellular phone – and more serious legal concerns.
Within months, Kerik faced New York state charges – to which he later pleaded guilty – that he accepted nearly US$200,000 in gifts while a public official – including more than $165,000 spent on renovations to his apartment. The money came from companies affiliated with a New Jersey outfit that federal authorities and state gambling regulators had linked to organized crime.
In 2005, Kerik asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing to answer questions before a New Jersey gaming regulatory body about his relationship to the people involved in the apartment renovations.
