Passaic Mayor Samuel Rivera was indicted on two counts of corruption today, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Rivera, 61, was arrested along with 10 other public officials in the FBI’s September 6th corruption bust. He is charged with accepting a $5,000 bribe in exchange for influencing local government contracts. The indictment states that Rivera intended to later be paid $50,000 for further help in peddling influence to make an undercover company the broker of record for city insurance services.
According to the indictment, Rivera told a cooperating witness that he could get them the necessary number of votes on the city council.
“I can get four votes easy, easy, easy,” the indictment quotes him as saying.
The indictment also alleges that when the insurance company’s presentation was questioned by a Passaic employee, Rivera responded “I make the [expletive] decision. And the council. And believe me, I’ve got the four [expletive] votes on the Council. So let’s stop [expletive] here and let’s get this thing rolling.”
If convicted, Rivera could face a maximum of 20 years in prison for the attempted extortion charge and 10 years for the bribery charge.
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