Ex-legislator sentenced to one year in prison

Former Assemblyman Morton Salkind (D-Marlboro) was sentenced to one year in prison today on tax evasion charges.  He will turn himself in on October 5.

In 2008, Salkind admitted he made false accounting entries for a real estate development in Rockaway Township. 

"The prison sentence is appropriate and just," said Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra. "Salkind is a 77-year-old man who is going to federal prison and who has already paid the United States $11.5 million in taxes, penalties and interest. This is a very good outcome thus far."

Salkind, a former mayor and state Lottery Commissioner, has agreed to pay about $17 million in back taxes, interest and penalties. 

The Star-Ledger  reported last month that Salkind's former partner filed a lawsuit alleging that federal prosecutors allowed him to plead guilty to a single count of tax evasion, ignoring evidence of additional fraud.  Salkind was represented by a law firm headed by Herbert Stern and John Inglesino, both political allies of former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, the Republican candidate for governor.

But a spokesman for Marra, Michael Drewniak, has said that Christie "had no role whatsoever in the decisions leading to the plea agreement and resolution of the case" and that "no defense attorneys involved in the matter sought or received any review of the case above the Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the case exclusively."