McGreevey fund-raiser admits fraud

D'Amiano pleads guilty to extorting $40,000 from a Piscataway farmer
Thursday, September 16, 2004
BY JOHN P. MARTIN
Star-Ledger Staff
A fund-raiser for Gov. James E. McGreevey yesterday admitted extorting $40,000 in cash and political donations from a Middlesex County farmer and said he prompted the governor to utter the now infamous code word Machiavelli as part of a political payoff scheme.

During a plea hearing in Newark, David D'Amiano did not directly implicate McGreevey but said he spurred the governor to say Machiavelli during a February 2003 conversation with Mark Halper, who was fighting a government plan to condemn his land.


D'Amiano said he and Halper agreed that McGreevey and Middlesex County officials involved in the scheme should use a word during their meetings to indicate that "they knew a deal was in place" for them to act in his favor.

"Did you tell Halper that you would ask the officials to use the word Machiavelli or Machiavellian?" U.S. District Judge William Walls asked D'Amiano.

more: http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-17/1095311735104730.xml

Wasn't he going to (snicker) return from Israel to clear his name, restore his honor, and make a few bucks?