ABC27.com
written by AP staff
Thursday June 21, 2012
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - A grand jury has indicted the mayor of New Jersey's largest suburb for allegedly taking bribes from a government informant.
John Bencivengo is mayor of Hamilton Township, in Mercer County. He was charged in April with attempted extortion for allegedly taking about $12,000 in bribes from someone seeking to maintain a contract with the township's school district.
The indictment handed up Thursday adds several other counts including money laundering.
The extortion and money laundering counts each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Through his lawyer, Bencivengo has previously denied the charges.
A message left for his attorney Thursday was not immediately returned.
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The Trentonian
written by Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman
Friday June 22, 2012
HAMILTON — Two of Mayor John Bencivengo’s Republican allies on Township Council called for the mayor to resign Thursday as a federal grand jury indicted him on five counts he accepted $12,400 in bribes.
The indictment gave new details behind Bencivengo’s alleged corruption, accusing the mayor of plotting to “conceal” his bribe money and seeking to use persuasion to “get rid of” a Hamilton school board member.
The indictment says the mayor took the bribes to help pay his taxes and personal expenses. One of the new details is Bencivengo was secretly recorded by the FBI’s cooperating witness as saying he “could not pay his monthly bills, and that he had gotten a letter from the IRS stating that he owed $5,200 for income taxes.”
“I thought long and hard about this and John. Unfortunately he was a really great municipal chair for us and I think a better mayor, but the text of this indictment is disturbing enough to where I have to ask him to step down,” Councilman Dennis Pone said of Bencivengo. “He certainly deserves his day in court, but I don’t think he can effectively govern anymore.”
Councilwoman Kelly Yaede joined Pone in calling for the mayor’s resignation: “Given that a jury of his peers outside of the political arena deemed enough evidence exists to indict the mayor, at this critical point it is in the best interests of Hamiltonians for the mayor to step down,” she said.
The indictment against the two-term Republican mayor comes eight weeks after he surrendered to FBI agents to face bribery allegations. The indictment provides more details into how Bencivengo allegedly accepted bribes during a three-month stretch in 2011.
Bencivengo, 58, is accused of taking the bribe money in exchange for his official influence over a health insurance brokerage contract with the Hamilton Township School District.
Neither the mayor nor his personal attorney Jerome Ballarotto returned phone calls Thursday seeking comment. Bencivengo in previous public statements has said he’s innocent and won’t resign from office. In a state-required financial report, Bencivengo said the $12,400 he received was a “loan” from “Marlisa Ljuba.”
Sources said Ljuba is the FBI’s cooperating witness — also known as the CW — who secretly recorded Bencivengo’s alleged corruption. In recent years, Ljuba brokered health insurance contracts for the Hamilton Township School District on behalf of the Vineland-based Allen Associates brokerage firm.
The indictment says Bencivengo and an unidentified “intermediary” approached the CW in March 2011 and told her that Bencivengo was having financial difficulties and needed her financial help. That eventually led to telephone calls in May 2011 between Bencivengo in New Jersey and the CW in “another state,” according to the indictment.
In the phone calls, Bencivengo allegedly “directed” Ljuba to bring her checkbook with her the next time she came to Hamilton Township.
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