Morton Salkind

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.

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State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, the Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor, say GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie should disclose the details of his involvement with the federal prosecution of former Assemblyman Morton Salkind (D-Marlboro). 

"While Christie has been quick to take credit for all the accomplishments of the U.S. Attorney's office during his tenure, he has run away from the office's failures even faster," Weinberg asked. "The people of New Jersey deserve answers to critical questions about Christie's role as U.S. Attorney.  What was the policy and criteria for cases being brought to his attention as U.S. Attorney?

The Star-Ledger reported on Wednesday that Samuel Yarosh has filed a lawsuit claiming that federal prosecutors allowed Salkind, his onetime business partner, 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 Christie, the Republican candidate for governor.

"There are only two possible explanations for Mr. Christie's  assertions that he was unaware of this case- either he mismanaged the U.S. Attorney's office so that a case of this size and import could be settled without his approval or knowledge, or he is not telling the truth about what he knew and when he knew it."

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A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office says that allegations that a plea bargain that prevented a developer from collecting whistleblower payments was related to a connection between then-U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie and an attorney for another defendant is "absurd."

"The U.S. Attorney's Office stands by the prosecution and the plea agreement. All the facts are before the court as we await sentencing," Michael Drewniak told PolitickerNJ.com.

Drewniak also said he was disappointed that veteran reporters took the lawsuit "at face value" and impugned the integrity of Justice Department employees.

The Star-Ledger reported on Wednesday that Samuel Yarosh has filed a lawsuit claiming that federal prosecutors allowed his onetime business partner, former Assemblyman Morton Salkind (D-Marlboro), 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 Christie, the Republican candidate for governor.

"As a factual matter, Christopher Christie, the former U.S. Attorney, did not personally sign any documents associated with that prosecution," said Drewniak, noting that the federal prosecutor's office handles 900 to 1,000 criminal cases annually and thousands of civil cases.  "It is common practice under the current Acting U.S. Attorney and the U.S. Attorneys preceding him to delegate the duty of authorizing and signing charging documents and plea agreements after they have been exhaustively reviewed by experienced supervisors."

Drewniak says 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."

"The allegations in the lawsuit are absurd on their face, and it says plenty that the first time this plaintiff cobbled together a RICO lawsuit, it was thrown out of court.  He merely repackaged it into a 150-page novel full of allegations that are, at a minimum, the product of a disgruntled, litigious plaintiff who is suing the IRS commissioner for a big payday," Drewniak said. "It is disappointing that some experienced reporters took this lawsuit at face value and that others would use it, ultimately, to impugn the integrity of hardworking line assistants and their experienced supervisors."

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Acting as Gov. Jon Corzine’s attack dog, state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) – the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor – said that Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie gave a defendant accused of tax fraud a “sweetheart plea deal” after he hired the law firm of Christie’s friends to represent him.  

But Christie’s campaign said that the former U.S. Attorney had no knowledge of the arrangement, let alone involvement in it, and that he never signed the document at the center of Democrats' charges. 

“Chris Christie got caught in a political lie to cover up his role in a sweetheart deal that let a prominent Republican get a slap on the wrist in a tax fraud case involving tens of millions of dollars,” said Weinberg.  “The fact that the guilty party was represented by two of Christie’s political colleagues makes his claim of ignorance impossible to swallow.  Are we supposed to believe Christie’s campaign or Christie’s signature on a legal document?  Come on Mr Christie - it's time to tell us the whole truth."
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The New Jersey General Assembly Alumni Association – and the Marlboro Mayoral Alumni Association -- took another hit this week when Morton Salkind, who served from 1974 to 1976, pleaded guilty to tax evasion.  A Democrat, Salkind was the Mayor of Marlboro when he ran for the Legislature in a heavily Democratic district in 1973.  That was the Watergate year when Republicans lost 25 Assembly seats.  Two years later, Salkind was ousted by Republican Marie Muhler.  After his political career ended, Salkind became a real estate developer, and after moving to Secaucus, became a member of the Hudson County Improvement Authority.

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Marie Muhler's announcement that she would not seek re-election to a fourth term as Monmouth County Surrogate marks the end of a political career than spanned four decades. A mother of five, Muhler began by running for the Marlboro Board of Education, and then moved up to the Freehold Regional Board of Education.

When she first ran for the State Assembly in 1975, the 37-year-old Muhler was facing two Democratic incumbents who had won upset victories in the '73 Watergate landslide. The was was an exceptionally close one: Assemblyman Walter Kozloski was the top vote-getter, with Muhler finishing 142 votes behind him -- and just 271 votes behind the other incumbent, Morton Salkind. Muhler's running mate, Jerome Burke, who had served as an Assemblyman from Essex Couny in 1964 and 1964, finished only 13 votes behind Salkind.

When veteran Republican State Senator Alfred Beadleston retired in 1977, Monmouth GOP leader decided to run Surrogate Thomas Gagliano for the Senate seat instead of Muhler, who was easily re-elected to a second term in the Assembly, by a margin of more than 3,300 votes. (Muhler finished first in that race, and Kozloski won a third term by just 213 votes over former Assemblyman John Dawes, whose law firm employed a young attorney named John Bennett. In 1979, with Kozlowski dying at the age of 44, Bennett won that seat.)

She won a contested race for the Assembly Republican leadership in 1976, becoming Assistant Minority Whip -- back in the days when there were only four leadership posts. When the Minority Leader, Thomas Kean, left the Legislature to run for Governor in 1977, a series of move-ups put Muhler in the Minority Whip post, and she became the #2 Republican in the Assembly leadership in 1982 when she became Assistant Minority Leader. But after the 1983 mid-term elections, a shake-up in the GOP caucus led to her defeat in a bid to keep her leadership post.

In 1980, Muhler nearly won election to the U.S. House of Representatives, coming within 1,900 votes of ousting eight-term Democrat James Howard. Muhler ran against Howard again in 1982, but lost by a much wider margin. She resigned from her Assembly seat in 1986 when she took a job with the state Department of Community Affairs. She returned to electoral politics in 1991 when Monmouth Republicans picked her to run against an incumbent Democratic Surrogate Patricia Bennett (who had won five years earlier against the GOP candidate, Frederick Niemann.) She was easily elected to three terms.

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