Friday, December 18, 2009
BY PETER J. SAMPSON The Record Staff Writer
Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez was indicted today on federal extortion and bribery charges in a scheme to use a middleman to shake down an FBI informant posing as a developer eager to folk over thousands of dollars in payoffs for building approvals.
Suarez, a lawyer and Democrat who is serving his second term as mayor, was accused of conspiring with Vincent Tabbachino, 68, of Fairview, a family friend and the proprietor of a tax preparation business in Guttenberg.
As part of the scheme, Tabbachino allegedly accepted $10,000 in cash from the informant, a failed Monmouth County real estate developer named Solomon Dwek, in exchange for Suarez’s official assistance. Tabbachino then funneled $2,500 of that money into a legal defense fund set up by Suarez to defray his personal costs in a civil suit, a federal grand jury in Newark charged.
The two men were among 44 defendants arrested in July in a massive federal corruption and money-laundering sting that rocked a state’s political landscape.
Meeting in a Fairview restaurant last May, Dwek, the informant, explained to Suarez and Tabbachino, “I don’t, eh, support Democrat or Republican. I’m the green party,” the indictment said, citing government recordings of the encounter.
Suarez assured him, “I wanna get these things done,” but added that “in terms of projects … everything gets … weighed on its merits,” the indictment quoted him as saying.
When Dwek said he understood that Suarez would expedite his projects, the mayor reportedly stated, “I’ll do like anyone else. You know, nothing has to do with anything, you know.”
After Suarez left the table, however, Tabbachino informed Dwek that the mayor “was super scared,” and that he’d previously said he had to make certain remarks to Dwek “just in case [he’s] wired.”
Tabbachino then assured Dwek that Suarez would take care of him.
Suarez’s lawyer, John Michael Vazquez, said Suarez maintains his innocence and had asked federal prosecutors last month to hold off on the indictment so he could present additional evidence.
“We thought, based on the information we had, that the U.S. Attorney’s Office really should have considered dismissing the case,” Vazquez said. “The extra 30 days was just to let them know about some facts that they were not aware of.”
Suarez has defied calls from prominent Democrats, including Governor Corzine, to resign as mayor and has made a point to appear at community events and public meetings with a vocal group of public supporters. He is the only mayor among the three who were arrested in the sting who remains in office.
Still, an effort to recall Suarez has gathered several hundred of the 1,400 signatures necessary to force an election to recall Suarez, according to Robert Avery, the Ridgefield Republican Organization chairman, who is leading the effort.
Avery said the group has recently suspended the signature drive, which must be completed in the next two and a half months, in the hopes that the indictment would cause Suarez to step down.
“We’ve been holding off just a few more days on the recall, hoping that Mr. Suarez would make it easier on the town,” Avery said of the indictment.
Staff Writer Matthew Van Dusen contributed to this article.
