| Not too long ago, I wrote a diary that looked at the multi million dollar federal monitoring contract that then-US Attorney Chris Christie gave to former US Attorney David Kelley a couple of years after Kelley left the US Attorney's office. In that diary, I looked at the questionable circumstances around this contract and the timing, especially since Kelley indicted 15 colleagues of Chris Christie's brother on securities fraud, while not indicting his brother even though the SEC found him to have made 1,600 illegal trades, earning millions of dollars while bilking taxpayers of millions.
While this story is getting some press in New Jersey and is (finally) leading to questions regarding the appropriateness of the contract Christie gave to Kelley, there is another angle to this story that needs to be explored as well. And that is the question as to why Christie's brother was not indicted, while employees who made far fewer illegal trades and earned far less money (and were much lower on the "food chain") were indicted.
We know a few things about how the Bush administration ran - think "pay to play" with Jack Abramoff, US Attorneys being hired, retained (as Christie was) or fired because of their choice to investigate Democrats - even when there was no "there" there. And with Chris Christie, there is a very interesting paper trail as it relates to decisions made about his career and hundreds of thousands of dollars being raised for Bush and the NJ republican party: The year, 2000: Joe Kyrillos is a State Senator, Chris Christie is raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for George Bush for President and serving as the corporate counsel for the campaign. Christie makes it known he wants to be a US Attorney after helping the Republican nominee.
Bush wins the White House (OK, sort of, but go with me) and it is released that Chris Christie "won't receive any consideration for a top federal appointment."
The year, 2001: Joe Kyrillos becomes the New Jersey state GOP chair, and suddenly Christie money starts flowing into the state party's coffers. Christie and his wife put up $20,000 though they had never given anywhere near that amount before. Christie's brother and his wife each gave $37,000 for a close family contribution of $94,000 in the first couple months after Kyrillos took office.
And by the time the summer is over Christie learns that he will be nominated to the post of US Attorney for NJ.
The year, 2002: Chris Christie is sworn in to office in January. Two months later his brother -- remember the brother? -- donates $225,000 to the federal party. Add in a few more $25,000 checks and a few for $5 and $10K and the total amount donated by the Christie family around the time of the job search and swearing in passes a half million dollars.
To summarize. No job for Chris, family friend gets powerful position, Chris's family gives friend six figure donations, Chris gets job, Chris's family quadruples the donation.
Now - fast forward to what was a $19 million rip off - the largest crackdown on illegal trading in the HISTORY of the "big board": According to the SEC, Todd Christie committed more that 1,600 improper trades between January 1999 and March 2003, generating "riskless profits" of more than $1.59 million for Spear Leeds (his own company) and costing investors $1.4 million. Fifteen of the 20 specialists facing civil charges were also charged with allegedly ripping off investors to the tune of $19,000,000.00, in the biggest crackdown on illegal trading in the Big Board's History.
As it related to Todd Christie, 3 people above him and the 11 below him were all indicted. What is amazing to note is that one of the indictments was for someone who profited to the tune of $14,000.00 while Todd Christie, who profited to the tune of $1,590,000.00 was never indicted. In fact, perhaps the most amazing thing of all was that Todd Christie was #4 on the list of the top 15 and yet he was the only one of the top 15 not to be indicted.
Looking at the case of Don Siegelman and Paul Minor for example - two Democrats who were convicted under very shady charges by the Bush Justice Department, it is clear that it didn't take much to make political opponents' lives absolutely miserable.
And in the case of Todd Christie - a man who donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the NJ and national republican parties - "coincidentally" around the time that his brother was told he would not be named US Attorney but then somehow his brother was named US Attorney, it smells even worse. We have the following:
- Chris Christie told he would not be named US Attorney, despite lobbying hard for the position;
- Todd and Chris Christie raise and donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to the national and NJ republican parties;
- Chris Christie named US Attorney;
- Todd and Chris Christie donate hundreds of thousands more to republican party;
- Todd Christie found by SEC to have made 1,600 illegal trades, ripping off taxpayers by close to $1.5 million, while earning a similar amount;
- Todd Christie is not indicted while pretty much everyone else around him that was involved (even remotely) was indicted;
- Chris Christie ends up on the list of US Attorneys to be fired;
- Chris Christie issues bogus subpoenas as part of an "investigation" into Senator Menendez a couple of months before the 2006 Senate race;
- Chris Christie finds himself off of the list of US Attorneys to be fired shortly after the 2006 Senate race.
Chris Christie's explanation for the above is that the SEC found no criminal actions by his brother. However, (1) this is the same SEC that ignored a roadmap into the Bernie Madoff ripoff and (2) the SEC found 1,600 illegal trades made by his brother. So it is clear that his explanation of the above is no better than the highly questionable sequence of events above.
Christie needs to come clean on this - even more so if all he has is his self-proclaimed reputation as "fighting the bad guys". He needs to credibly explain why he and his brother aren't the same "bad guys" he is so proud of convicting. |
