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Date Posted: Wed, September 03, 2008 6:52:28
ZACCARO PLEADS GUILTY IN FRAUD SCHEME
Philadelphia Daily News (PA) - January 7, 1985
Author: Associated Press
John Zaccaro, husband of Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro , pleaded guilty today to a charge of scheming to defraud in connection with the purchase and financing of five apartment buildings.
New York Supreme Court Justice George Roberts said that in accordance with Zaccaro's deal with the district attorney, he would not impose a jail sentence for the misdemeanor unless Zaccaro commits another offense before sentencing Feb. 20.
In a statement released by his lawyers, Zaccaro said he hoped the plea would end "the inquiries and the microscopic attention" given to his business affairs. He said he entered the plea in order to spare his family further publicity.
Roberts read the indictment to Zaccaro in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, the state's trial court. He then asked Zaccaro if he had been a broker rather than a principal in the deal. Zaccaro said, "Yes."
He also told the judge that the deal never went through.
Ferraro and other members of the family were not in the courtroom when Zaccaro pleaded guilty .
The judge asked him if he had read the indictment, and if the charges were true.
"Yes, the parts that you read," Zaccaro said.
A co-defendent, Harold Farrell, 63, of Breezy Point, Queens, pleaded innocent in connection with the scheme.
Zaccaro, 51, is a real estate broker. Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau alleged that he tried to obtain financing for the purchase of the five Queens buildings for John DeLorenzo, a Manhattan real estate investor.
Zaccaro submitted a falsely inflated contract of sale for the apartment buildings to a New Jersey mortgage broker, altered a copy of an appraisal of the buildings which was submitted to a securities firm and issued a false
financial statement which overstated his net worth by more than $17 million, Morgenthau said.
The charge is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in prison.
In his statement, Zaccaro said he cooperated with prosecutors in the case and added, "I had hoped that the district attorney would recognize that I acted to cancel the transaction in question, and in so doing chose not to proceed. However, I understand the strict demands of the law and accept his decision.
"My lawyers have advised me that since my client and I withdrew the loan application, since no one but I was injured, and since I received no benefit, they felt that they could successfully defend this case."
But he said he entered the plea to spare his family more publicity, and to ''conclude the matter and try to return to private life."
Indicted along with Zaccaro was Farrell on a charge of scheming to defraud and practice of law by an attorney who has been disbarred.
Farrell was accused of participating in the allegedly fraudulent financing scheme for DeLorenzo in connection with the purchase of a building in Manhattan as well as for the Queens buildings.
The indictment said that in September 1983, Farrell paid Thomas J. Albanese, then a director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's credit union, $25,000 in exchange for Albanese's assistance in getting a $550,000 loan for DeLorenzo's purchase of the Manhattan building.
The loan was improper because DeLorenzo was not a member of the credit union, as required by federal regulations, officials said.
Documents Zaccaro and his wife filed in August 1984 said Zaccaro was worth about $3 million, mostly in real estate, while Ferraro was worth $760,000.
Throughout his wife's campaign for the vice presidency Zaccaro's finances were subjected to intense public scrutiny. And after the election, the House Ethics Committee ruled that Ferraro had erred in not reporting Zaccaro's holdings while she was a congresswoman.
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Ferraro's son also testified in the "Preppie" murder case:
FERRARO'S SON CONVICTED OF SELLING COCAINE
Akron Beacon Journal (OH) - April 10, 1988
A jury on Saturday, found John Zaccaro Jr. guilty of selling cocaine to an undercover officer two years ago, rejecting a defense lawyer's argument that
the officer had committed entrapment.
The jury deliberated for slightly more than two hours before finding the son of 1984 Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro guilty of selling one-quarter gram of the drug in February 1986, while he was a student at Middlebury College.
Zaccaro sat impassively as the verdict was read, his parents and other family members behind him. He faces up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. A sentencing date was not immediately set.
Outside the courthouse, Ferraro read a statement criticizing Addison County State's Attorney John Quinn for `prolonging the agony for two years' regarding her son 's fate.
She said her family had tried to set up a plea agreement shortly after Zaccaro was arrested, but refused to allow him to plead guilty to a felony drug sale charge because they believed he was innocent of that.
Ferraro promised to appeal the guilty verdict.
She thanked the jury and the judge for their fairness while acknowledging her son had done something wrong. She declined to answer reporters' questions.
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