The former mayor of Hoboken, Peter J. Cammarano III, pleaded guilty today to a corruption charge, admitting that he had accepted a $25,000 bribe from an undercover informant.
Cammarano was the youngest mayor in the city’s history and had only been in office for three weeks when he was arrested last summer in a wide-sweeping corruption and money-laundering sting that netted other public officials and rabbis. One man from Brooklyn was also charged with trying to sell a human kidney.
From TPMmuckraker’s story on the sting:
Cammarano, who only took over as mayor on July 1, was charged with accepting $25,000 in cash bribes from Dwek in return for promising support for zoning changes for a high-rise Dwek said he wanted to build, while Cammarano was a mayoral candidate. Cammarano told Dwek: “You can put your faith in me” and “you’re gonna be treated like a friend,” according to the [DOJ] complaint.
The money was converted into campaign contributions, according to the complaint.
So far, 16 other defendants have pleaded guilty and one, former Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini, was convicted at trial.
Cammarano had resigned a week after his arrest.
