BOMBSHELL: Frank Raia & Dio Braxton INDICTED: "conspiracy to promote a voter bribery scheme by use of the mail"
United States Attorney
District of New Jersey
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FORMER HOBOKEN CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE AND CAMPAIGN WORKER INDICTED FOR CONSPIRING TO USE MAIL TO PROMOTE VOTER BRIBERY SCHEME
NEWARK, N.J. – A former candidate for the Hoboken City Council and a campaign worker were charged today by a federal grand jury with conspiracy to promote a voter bribery scheme by use of the mail, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.
Francis Raia, 67, of Hoboken, New Jersey, was a candidate for city council in 2013. Dio Braxton, 43, of Hoboken, worked for Raia’s campaign. A federal grand jury charged them today with conspiracy to violate the federal Travel Act for causing the mails to be used in aid of voter bribery, contrary to New Jersey state law, during the 2013 election. Lizaida Camis, a conspirator, was charged by indictment on Oct. 17, 2018; her case is pending.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Under New Jersey law, registered voters are permitted to cast a ballot by mail rather than in-person. To receive a mail-in ballot, voters must complete and submit to their County Clerk’s Office an Application for Vote By Mail Ballot (VBM Application). After the VBM Application is processed by the County Clerk’s Office, voters receive a mail-in ballot.
From October 2013 through November 2013, Raia instructed Braxton and other conspirators to pay certain Hoboken voters $50 if those voters applied for and cast mail-in ballots in the November 2013 Hoboken municipal election. Conspirators provided these voters with VBM applications and then delivered the completed VBM Applications to the Hudson County Clerk’s office. After the mail-in ballots were delivered to the voters, the conspirators went to the voters’ residences and, in some cases, instructed the voters to vote for Raia and in favor of a ballot referendum that Raia supported relating to rent control. Conspirators promised the voters that they would be paid $50 for casting their mail-in ballots and told them that they could pick up their checks after the election at Raia’s office in Hoboken. Bank records show that voters living in Hoboken received $50 checks from an entity hired by Raia’s political action committee.
Raia and Braxton each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the conspiracy charge.
U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Gregory W. Ehrie in Newark, and special agents of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of the Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Christina Scaringi, with the investigation leading to today’s indictment.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Farrell of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Special Prosecutions Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Rahul Agarwal, Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division.
The charges and allegations in this indictment, and against Camis, are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Well, Christmas sure came early! Popcorn at the ready. Waiting for the next dominoes to fall.
ReplyDeleteR*sso? R*mos?
Russo never needed Raia and were often than not on opposing sides. Raia allegedly funded the Campos mayoral spoiler challenge to Ramos.
DeleteNow the fun begins. All of the "other conspirators" are sweating bullets. Now, who could they be? Could not have happened to a more deserving bunch of miscreants.
ReplyDeleteLie down with dogs, get up with fleas.
DeletePupie would never roll over and rat out his co-conspirators, right? Right?
ReplyDeleteI mean, probably not, right?
Oh my.
Bwaaa haww haww! I can think of 3 sitting Council members who might need a frequent change of underwear.
DeleteDio Braxton lives in Marineview which is in Michael DeFusco's First Ward.
DeleteMarine View is also the home of one of the "Vote Yes" shadow puppeteers
DeleteAccording to Jersey Journal's political columnist Augie Torres in 2017 Frank "Pupie" Raia was one of Hoboken's Old Guard politicos working on the Michael DeFusco's mayoral campaign.
ReplyDelete"BUT RAIA HELPED ZIMMER! BUT RAIA HELPED ZIMMER!!!"
ReplyDeleteYeah, he helped her beat Campos, who's also in prison, funnily enough, while some of the biggest whiners and has-been are now palling around with his old crew.
Raia teamed up with a lot of people over the years. The enemy of my enemy is my friend is an adage that applies to all candidates, great and small.
Has anyone told that twit Fisher that nobody wanted runoffs more than Raia b/c it would make it easier for a candidate to cheat their way to victory?
ReplyDeleteI think they know and maybe were hoping to benefit from the VBM machine.
DeleteHas anyone reached out to David Mello on this issue? He's long been one of Raia's most consistent champions from ostensible "Reform" circles. When Raia was appointed to the North Hudson Sewerage Authority in 2011, the nomination and second were from Occhipinti and Russo, respectively, with deciding votes from Castellano, Giacchi, Mason and... Mello. In the "nays" were Bhalla, Cunningham and Marsh.
ReplyDeleteDuring the controversial 2016 appointment process, in which the racially controversial Kurt Gardiner beat out both Raia and the highly capable Brian Assadourian, the Raia nomination came from Mello, with second from Cunningham.
I realize Mello is no longer on the council and some might say no longer a Reformer and no longer relevant, the two "r's", so to speak, the fact that he remains chairman of the Hoboken Housing Authority, where Raia's alleged actions are believed to have been the most predatory and pernicious, I'd like to hear what Mello has to say for himself.
Dave Mello has been awfully quiet on this. I think he's a political opportunist. He's clung onto Zimmer as well as Bhalla during the initial campaigning before Zimmer was leaving her post. I think each election season, Mello rolls the dice to see who is more likely to win (and what he'll gain) and he'll let that decide his allegiances.
DeleteGiven the fact that he allegedly wanted to be on Giattino's ticket after years of acrimony with her and her core supporters, I tend to think you're right.
DeleteNevertheless, he's got the most consistent record of aiding Raia from unlikely corners of the political arena, and as chairman of the agency serving the community most harmed by Raia's alleged crimes, I think it's pertinent for him to be pressed for comment on this development.
Dave tried to cultivate a relationship with Pupie believing it could come in handy someday (he aspired to run for mayor - probably still does). But there was never any indication of an actual quid pro quo. Just an attempt to be seen as a "friend."
ReplyDeleteIf reports and optics are true, Peter Cunningham cut a direct, corrupt quid pro quo deal - Pupie's support (or at least neutrality) in Peter's 2015 council race in exchange for Peter's vote supporting Pupie for Sewerage Authority.
Dave, at most, exercised poor judgement. Peter, if the story is true, crossed far further over the line into old fashioned Hoboken style political corruption.
Numbers, your comments on Cunningham's possible corruption are well noted and I have no reason to dispute them. Please note they also do not contradict my views on Mello, whom I do not allege to be corrupt but DO allege to have shown long-standing, consistent affinity for Raia, going back to his having gone into hibernation in the weeks leading up to the 2011 NHSA vote to keep everyone guessing which was he was going to come down (not returning his council allies' phone calls or texts), then choosing to vote with the Russo-Castellano-Mason-Occhipinti-Giacchi bloc at a time when they were in all-out war with the Reform team.
DeleteNow that his sole remaining claim to officialdom is on the HHA board, his constituents who've been preyed upon and exploited by Raia for so many years deserve to hear what their chairman has to say for himself.
Anon - I was not attempting to dispute or contradict your point about Mello, nor did intend to engage in "whataboitism." I just wanted to add Cunningham to the discussion because in my opinion his actions were far worse than Mello'd.
DeleteDavid (and Peter) did not need an indictment to know about Raia's activities so the indictment doesn't really change anything with regard to their culpability for their solicitations of Raia.
Both cast votes for Raia that didn't ultimately matter, but there no reason to believe either of them would have hesitated had their votes been the deciding vote in Raia's favor.
Agreed. Cunningham has always struck me as a bit of a dim bulb and may or may not have been sharp enough to fully grasp the corrupt nature of his choices -- not that that's any excuse.
DeleteMello, on the other hand, is more of a deliberate political prostitute.
The extreme tribalism by both those who consider themselves being any of the shades of reformer and those who consider themselves old guard in Hoboken politics has hurt the City.
ReplyDelete