The New York Post reports:
The man at the center of an alleged hush-money scandal that has ensnared New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine has been quietly working as a mortgage broker - despite his repeated claims of being unemployed since being asked to step down from a state job earlier this year, The Post has learned.Here's more Jon Corzine scandal news.In other New Jersey corruption news,some New Jersey politicians were arrested.
Rocco Riccio - whose sister-in-law is Corzine's one-time girlfriend Carla Katz - has been working part time as a mortgage loan officer for Unity Mortgage in Old Bridge, N.J., for at least six months, sources said.
Corzine has admitted giving Riccio $15,000 since he left his job at the New Jersey Turnpike Authority in January, but insists it was because Riccio told him he was unemployed and on the verge of losing his home to bankruptcy.
But a company executive said Riccio could easily be making at least $60,000 a year if he was willing to work full time.
"With his background and the area that he is in, he is a really good candidate that could do well. There is no way you can't make a good living in this industry. Unfortunately, he hasn't put in the time," the executive said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Corzine's payment has brought howls from the state Republican Party and demands of a probe into Riccio's alleged improprieties and whether the cash was really hush money.
Riccio, 44, has said he was forced by Corzine's staff to step down from the job as an accounting manager at the authority because of media scrutiny stemming from the governor's relationship with Katz, who is a major union boss in New Jersey.
Corzine, who forked over a reported $6 million to Katz when they broke up before he was elected governor, has long been dogged by allegations of financial entanglements with the union heavy.
Katz's brother-in-law had only had the turnpike job for two weeks after being forced to resign a job at the state's Treasury Department because of allegations he had improperly viewed taxpayer records to dig up dirt on political opponents.
Riccio did not return messages yesterday seeking comment about the job. He told reporters on his front lawn in Hainesport, N.J., that he welcomes "any probe and investigation," but called the charges he received hush money "erroneous, irresponsible and incorrect."
