United States v. Parkin

319 F. App'x 101
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedApril 1, 2009
Docket05-4085
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 319 F. App'x 101 (United States v. Parkin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Parkin, 319 F. App'x 101 (3d Cir. 2009).

Opinion

OPINION

COHILL, Senior District Judge.

Defendant Harry G. Parkin appeals his conviction for twelve counts of mail fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341, 1346 and 18 U.S.C. § 2, and one count of attempted extortion in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a). We will affirm.

I.

Harry G. Parkin is an attorney and former prosecutor for Mercer County, New Jersey. From 1995 to December 31, 2003, Parkin served as the Chief of Staff to Robert Prunetti, the Mercer County Executive. Among other things, Parkin served as the County Executive’s liaison to the governing board of the Mercer County Improvement Authority (“MCIA”). The MCIA is an autonomous agency within Mercer County established to conduct municipal finance and oversee development projects for the County. Relevant to this case, the MCIA is the agency responsible for overseeing the solid waste and recycling collection programs in the County.

The contract for curbside recycling pickup in Mercer County was due to expire at the end of 1999. The MCIA was unhappy with the current contractor, Waste Management, and put the contract up for bid. After Waste Management was the only *104 bidder, Parkin contacted the Executive Director of the MCIA, James Lambert, to let him know that a top contributor to the Republican Party, Alex Abdalla, was interested in bidding on the contract. The MCIA decided to rebid the contract. The only bidders in the second round were Waste Management and Abdalla’s company, Central Jersey Waste & Recycling (“CJW&R”). The contract was awarded to CJW&R.

In July 2000, Lambert resigned from the MCIA and joined CJW&R as its President. Due to CJW&R’s financial difficulties Abdalla and Lambert approached Parkin to ask him to invest in CJW&R. Parkin desired to join forces with Lambert and Abdalla so that each would become a one-third owner of the company. However, he wanted to conceal his interest in the company due to his position as Chief of Staff of the Mercer County Executive and because CJW&R had the recycling contract with the County. Parkin sought to conceal his interest in CJW&R by first drafting a stock-option agreement providing for Lambert to purchase a two-thirds interest in CJW&R from Abdalla. Parkin’s actual, concealed one-third interest in the company would be protected through a secret side agreement he would have with Lambert. This deal eventually fell through.

To help with CJW&R’s financial difficulties, Parkin agreed to loan the company $150,000 at a 15% interest rate, but again sought to conceal his interest in the company. This was accomplished through the use of a sham loan showing that Parkin was loaning $150,000 to PMT Contracting Company, a company owned by Abdalla’s nephew. The $150,000 was actually given to CJW&R, and payments on the loan were made from the company’s funds to Parkin. Parkin failed to disclose the source of interest income he received from the loan on mandatory state ethics disclosure forms for calendar year 2000, and failed to file any forms for calendar year 2001.

Thereafter, Parkin, Lambert, and Ab-dalla sought other avenues to enable each of the three men to gain a one-third ownership interest in the company. At the same time, however, Abdalla sought financing from other persons, in particular, Frank Fiumefreddo and his son. The Fiu-mefreddos loaned CJW&R $250,000 in exchange for an option for 51% ownership in the company and the right to manage CJW&R.

After the Fiumefreddos took over management responsibilities, Abdalla decided he did not like the new arrangement. Meanwhile, Parkin was concerned that the interest payments on his loan might stop under the Fiumefreddos management. He thus began to plan to have Lambert, Ab-dalla, and himself buy out the Fiumefred-dos’ interest in the company.

In order to ensure that Abdalla had sufficient funds to accomplish a buyout, Parkin sought to have a demolition contract to demolish buildings on South Broad Street in Trenton awarded to Abdalla’s company. To accomplish this, Parkin told the new Executive Director of the MCIA, Steven Dixon, that he wanted the contract awarded to Abdalla’s company. After two rounds of bidding, the Deputy Executive Director to the MCIA recommended to Dixon that the contact be awarded to the company that had proffered the low bid each time. Instead, Dixon rebid the contract two more times, and both times CJW&R did not have the low bid. Dixon then gave CJW&R, but not the low bidding company, a final opportunity to bid. Abdalla submitted an undated, amended bid directly to Dixon and his company was awarded a $33,300 contract for the South Broad Street demolition project.

*105 As part of his responsibilities as Chief of Staff for the Mercer County Executive Parkin also oversaw a potential redevelopment project at the Trenton-Mereer Airport. Parkin attempted to have an airport demolition contract, worth between $1,000,000 and $1,400,000, awarded to CJW&R. Parkin sent Lambert to inform Abdalla that in order to get the airport demolition contract, Abdalla would have to agree to get rid of the Fiumefreddos and allow Parkin to obtain an ownership interest in CJW&R. However, the company responsible for development of the site was unable to obtain financing and the airport redevelopment deal fell through.

Parkin also employed threats in an effort to force the Fiumefreddos to sell their interest in CJW&R. Parkin attempted to accomplish this plan by threatening to require the elder Fiumefreddo to undergo the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s licensing approval process to obtain a license to operate a waste hauling company. This approval was necessary if Fiumefreddo ever wanted to exercise his option to purchase 51% of CJW&R. Up to this point, Fiumefreddo had not sought approval, apparently because of alleged ties to organized crime that had caused Fiumefreddo to give up ownership interest in waste hauling companies in New York City. As part of this plan, Parkin instructed an MCIA employee named Jerry Fiabane to investigate the elder Fiumefreddo’s background and report directly back to Parkin so that he could use the information as leverage. Parkin then instructed Fiabane to meet with the Fiumefreddos to inform them that Fiabane had information about the elder Fiumefreddo’s ties to organized crime and would have to forward that information to the authorities.

Parkin also sought to force the Fiu-mefreddos to sell their interest in CJW&R by threatening to withhold the 2003 renewal of the initial recycling contract, an action that would effectively destroy the company. To accomplish this plan, Parkin instructed Fiabane to tell Lou Calisti, the MCIA employee responsible for sending out the contract renewal, to hold up the renewal process. Parkin then instructed Abdalla to inform the Fiumefreddos that the contract renewals were in jeopardy as long as they remained with the company. Finally, Parkin himself told the elder Fiu-mefreddo not to count on the contracts being renewed.

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Bluebook (online)
319 F. App'x 101, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-parkin-ca3-2009.