Joseph Salema, ex-chief of staff to former New Jersey Gov. Jim Florio, was sentenced yesterday to six months in a halfway house followed by six months of home detention for his role in a kickback scheme involving a Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority bond deal.
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Salema, who has already paid restitution of $330,000, was fined $10,000 by U.S. District Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor in Manhattan.
The judge said she would not send Salema to prison, but was imposing a 12-month sentence because of the seriousness of the crime.
Salema, wiping his eyes and speaking with difficulty through his tears, took full responsibility for his actions.
"I was wrong and I make absolutely no excuses for that. I used poor judgment," Salema said. "I will have to live with this for the rest of my life."
Salema was an owner of New Jersey-based financial adviser Consolidated Financial Management Inc. Consolidated allegedly obtained $262,000 in illegal kickbacks from a $237.5 million 1990 bond issue before Salema served under Florio.
Rudi, a Camden County administrator in the 1980s, faces five counts of extortion, mail fraud, and three different types of securities fraud. His trial is pending.
The charges against both Rudi and Salema were the result of a nearly two-year joint investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Salema had pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud on Feb. 23 in federal district court, admitting that he had not fulfilled his fiduciary duty to the utilities authority.
Salema faced a maximum prison term of 10 years and a fine of up to $250,000. Prior to the sentencing, assistant U.S. attorney Jonathan Rosenberg had urged a prison term of 12 months as a general deterrent.
In handing down Salema's sentence, Sotomayor said it was "difficult to make sense" of wrongdoing by a public official of high standing.
