The Curious Cammarano Complaint


How can one keep up with the sheer volume of goings-on in Hoboken these days?

GA can't.

Whatever floats up to the top gets my attention.  This morning it was a piece in the Jersey Journal about former Mayor Peter Cammarano getting sued by 3 plaintiffs for unpaid loans and services from his 2009 campaign.

Even before reading it, a few things seemed odd.

Why NOW?   

These loans have been sitting unpaid for 2 years.  There is no particular reason to file the suit at this time, or is there?

GA had speculated last June that Cammaranno must have turned informant to get a 17-month sentence reduction (30%) from federal prison. It's not going too far out on a limb to say he turned state's evidence and will likely be a witness for the prosecution, should the indicted go to trial.

Wouldn't you say it serves the indicted to have the State's witness beaten and bloodied as a defendant in his own law suit, with his own unethical deeds replayed in the media?  It can be used by the defense to attack his credibility if the case(s) go to court.

Why 3 unrelated plaintiffs?

Again, the rush to cobble together a suit for a more substantial amount than 3 individual smaller suit- in the final days before the 'hammer falls'... or so it seems to me.

This Cammaranno suit feels like something that was arranged by a third party.  In a hurry.

How did the media get it?

Somebody fed them the story. GA supposes the person or people who want  to do damage the State's witness.There's a reason the story 'appeared'.  Nobody is looking around at the complaints filed in Superior Court, no one from the media is stationed there.  Somebody made sure you and I read it this morning.

Now here's where it gets more interesting (and curious).

When GA read the Jersey Journal piece, this jumped out at me:
Walensky, who was in charge of hiring campaign workers, planning strategies, and deciding which neighborhoods were more likely to vote for Cammarano, said his company, Bluewater Operations, went bankrupt because of Cammarano’s actions, according to the papers filed.
Bluewater Operations, LLC... bankrupt?

How could that be?  Bluewater has turned up on Beth Mason ELEC reports since 2009, most recently distributing 52K in street money for last May's election.

But the Jersey Journal cited that according to "papers filed" Bluewater had gone  bankrupt, and it was all because of Peter Camarrano.

This is where GA called  super-sleuth One Eye.



You know he's got one frigging eye, right?  It's very disconcerting.  I try to focus on his upper lip when we speak.  Anyway, I asked him to please get to the bottom of Bluewater's 'bankruptcy.'

You asked me to run down Bluewater Operations as a follow up.

Based upon the article that you sent today, I checked the bankruptcy records for NJ and no entity called Bluewater Operations has filed for bankruptcy in NJ. See attached PACER search.

One Eye's Pacer Search of US Bankruptcy Court of NJ data base shows no bankruptcy filing for Bluewater Operations, LLC.

It is a NJ limited liability company and is based in NJ. NJ would be the place to file the bankruptcy. I am not sure what the guy is talking about.

He may have done an assignment for the benefit of his creditors in state court, but then he would not have owned the company and would not have been in a position to accept money from Mason and then pay some bills for her. Which we know that he did from the ELEC.

In the litigation, all Cammarano has to do is ask for the bank records for Bluewater to make the chucklehead prove his claim that he was bankrupt and lost the company. The minute Cammarano asks for that stuff, I bet that this moron runs for the hills and drops the litigation. Too much information would spill out about the money coming in and going out. To who and how much. I can’t get that information independently, but it is there, just waiting for the right person to ask for it.

Thank you, One Eye.

So, in a real bankruptcy, there would be either a reorg plan or liquidation; in either case Bluewater wouldn't be holding money for Beth Mason.   Had Walensky instead done an assignment for the benefit of his creditors in state court, he would have lost all control of his company- and likewise would be unable to have worked for Mason.
Which he HAS.

Beth Mason ELEC report, R-1- May 3, 2011

Meaning the claim of bankruptcy on the Camaranno complaint is patently untrue.  Meaning an excuse was ginned up for the purpose of the complaint.

Why?

GA is going back to the rush-job theory.  It's a sloppy complaint, a disparate group cobbled together in a hurry because the Feds are coming, and those in the cross-hairs know it. This Camaranno suit smells like a desparation move, a try at muddying up a cooperating witness.

One more thing.  One Eye sent this- a New Jersey Business Gateway report on Bluewater, showing it's a operating business and has been since its 2008 creation.  Not bankrupt.

Comments

  1. unreal. another investigative journalism coup from GA, let's hope the local mainstream media and FEDS take note. they need to tell beth mason that they "need more information."

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  2. It's stranger than fiction. Nice follow-up there GA and One Eye.

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  3. i really think you may have opened a HUGE can of worms. so good.

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  4. I enjoyed reading the Jersey Journal article this morning, too. Not to take away from any of your points (quite the contrary!), here's what I took away from my initial read:

    1. Louis Zayas. Same attorney handling the recently filed HPU lawsuit. Of course Zayas makes a business of this sort of work. And often such lovely clients, too! My favorite remains the Chris Campos suit:

    Filed:
    http://www.nj.com/hobokennow/index.ssf/2010/04/chris_campos_sues_police_who_a.html

    Dismissed with Prejudice:
    http://www.nj.com/hobokennow/index.ssf/2010/09/southern_district_of_ny_judge.html

    My analysis (predating the dismissal):
    http://hobokendiary.blogspot.com/2010/10/april-26-2010-hoboken-in-new-york-times_26.html

    2. OK, let me get this straight. The suit is claiming is that the plaintiffs agreed to deposit checks into their accounts that were contributions written to the Cammarano campaign? Meaning they agreed to launder money, and then got screwed when many of those checks bounced (which is itself interesting!)? So sorry that didn't work out for you! Reminiscent of that definition of chutzpah citing the son who murders his parents and throws himself on the mercy of the court because he's an orphan.

    3. The touch that the City of Hoboken bears responsibility for this upstanding alleged behavior on the part of Cammarano and his alleged supporters is brilliant.

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  5. Oh, I made up that crap about being bankrupt.

    Also, the article makes clear that Walensky is not after Cammarano for money but to damage his credibility:

    "Peter is my issue," he said. "I'm past the money - it's about principle. It's about a guy who gets away with this kind of stuff. Someone has to say, 'Don't do that - it's not kosher to do that stuff.'"

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