Kerik Whined to Alleged Bribers: I Feel Like I’m on “Welfare”

Here’s one for the annals of not-so-subtle requests for bribes by public officials. The heart of the indictment against Bernard Kerik focuses on the fact that he accepted $255,000 worth of apartment renovations from Interstate Industrial Corporation (called XYZ in the indictment) while the company was seeking business from the city.

Interstate’s problem was that they were suspected of ties to the Gambino crime family. City investigators were on the case, and if they discovered mob ties, game over: no city contracts. So Kerik, having asked Interstate if they could pay for renovations to his apartment (keep in mind, Kerik ran the city’s department of corrections at the time), sat down with investigators to discuss Interstate.

He told them that no way was Interstate mobbed up. He added: “If I thought Interstate was mobbed up, do you think I’d let my brother work there?”

But in the indictment, prosecutors reveal an email that shows Kerik was just doing what he’d been paid to do. And having done his job so well “without question,” he clearly thought he was owed more:

Shortly after attending this meeting, BERNARD B. KERIK sent [an Interstate employee] an email explaining that “I put my reputation and integrity on the line defending whatever [the Interstate employee] asked without question.” (Emphasis in original). Later in that same email, KERIK complained that he felt like he was on “welfare” as compared to the life-style [the Interstate employee] lived. He explained that: “I’m walking on eggshells until this apartment is done. A bullshit $170,000., [sic] I had to beg, borrow and [expletive] for the down payment and I’m still [expletive] over the $5,000. [sic] I need for closing if it happens. Then the renovations.”

Translation: I sold my integrity, but I’m still in the poor house. Give me more.

The fourteen count indictment adds up to a max of 142 years in prison and $4.75 million in fines. In addition to the “Theft of Honest Services” counts, which are basically bribery charges, the feds are after him for a whole lot of tax fraud (for which they’ve provided a handy chart here), and also making a number of false statements to the federal government when he was applying to head up the Department of Homeland Security. The infamous nanny, surely the least of Kerik’s transgressions, are among the charged lies. Kerik has pleaded not guilty.