The federal trial of North Hudson real estate businessman Rene Abreu and three of his employees continued in a Newark federal court last week, with the chief lending officer of Hudson United Bank testifying that he never knew of Abreu and his associates being involved in any fraud or bribery at Hudson United’s branch in West New York.
Federal prosecutors are claiming that Hudson United employees helped Abreu to earn more than $1.5 million by way of money laundering or illegal fund redistribution.
Lending officer Thomas Shara, who was testifying on behalf of the prosecution, answered interrogatories from attorneys representing Abreu, the former North Hudson political honcho and ally of State Assembly Speaker and West New York Mayor Albio Sires, according to a source.
Shara, who now works for Hudson United at its corporate headquarters in Mahwah, but once worked at the West New York branch where Abreu did most of his financial transactions, was consistently asked Tuesday and Wednesday whether he had any knowledge of the alleged illegal wrongdoing going on at the bank between Abreu and Hudson United Bank senior vice-president Luis Nieves, who is also on trial with Abreu and three of his business associates.
Testifying before U.S. District Judge Joseph Greenaway, Jr., who has also presided over several of the North Bergen federal corruption sentencings, Shara told the court that he had no idea of Abreu’s alleged activity.
Abreu is charged with organizing an alleged scam in which mortgage and other loan applications were filed and processed by Abreu’s mortgage brokerage company for commercial and residential bank loans.
The federal officials prosecuting the case insist that Abreu and some of his co-defendants allegedly falsified financial information for clients, some of whom had no idea they were filing any applications whatsoever – people who would not have qualified for loans from another lending institution.
According to information received from the U.S. Attorney’s office, Abreu’s attorney, Hackensack-based Gerald Krovatin, tried to get Shara to admit that the bank had knowledge of the transactions, instead of the insistence of the bank that they were victims in the entire scheme.
Krovatin first asked Shara about Hudson United’s apparent strong relationship with the 43-year-old West New York native, whose three businesses, Abreu Real Estate, RLA Homes and the Mortgage Pros, Inc., are located on Bergenline Avenue in Guttenberg. Abreu was once a member of Hudson United’s advisory council and was the recipient of several business-community related awards from the bank.
Shara did say that Hudson United continued to conduct business and accept referrals from Abreu’s businesses long after the bank put a freeze on all of Abreu’s accounts in July, 2002. They had had to freeze the accounts by law soon after Abreu was indicted on several federal fraud charges. “We’re not willing to turn good business away from anybody,” Shara told the court, according to a source.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Krovatin said that in court Abreu was able to see construction plans from the bank before other mortgage companies were, a claim that Shara denied.
Krovatin said that there was another instance in which Hudson United and Abreu worked together, when Hudson United was in negotiations to merge with Dime Savings Bank of New York.
Krovatin alleged that Shara had asked Abreu to request the assistance of Rep. Robert Menendez, former United States Sen. Robert Torricelli and Hudson County Freeholder Bill O’Dea of Jersey City to help get the bank out of hot water, to clear the way for the proposed merger with Dime Savings.
Shara said he did not remember ever asking Abreu to speak to the elected officials to help in the matter.
Shara did agree with Krovatin’s assessment that one of the reasons the merger didn’t succeed was because Hudson United was not complying with the federal Community Reinvestment Act, a 1977 law mandating that banks help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they do business, including low-and moderate-income neighborhoods.
Dime has since merged with Washington Mutual.
43-count indictment
Abreu, a current resident of Fort Lee, was named in a 43-count indictment in July, 2002, along with 10 other business associates, on federal fraud charges. Since the indictment was handed down, six of the others named in the indictment, including Abreu’s wife, Lourdes-Adan Abreu, have pleaded guilty to the charges and await sentencing, pending possible cooperation with federal investigators.
Abreu is on trial along with three of his employees, North Bergen residents Kathy Giunta and Ana Martell, as well as fellow employee Fernandez Jimenez, and Nieves, the Hudson United Bank vice-president in charge of lending.
Abreu was also charged with taking protection money for an illegal gambling operation from former West New York Police Chief Alexander Oriente “on behalf of a high level West New York public official,” according to the indictment filed in 2002.
In the original indictment, the public official was not named, but Oriente testified in a highly volatile police corruption trial in 1999 that he regularly gave Abreu $2,000 per week and believed it was being funneled to Sires.
Sires has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Oriente, as well as 24 other police officers, pleaded guilty to the charges of accepting bribes as part of illegal gambling operations in the town.
Sires has never been mentioned or questioned as part of the Oriente trial, or as part of this current investigation that led to the indictment against his long-time friend, Abreu.
“I honestly don’t know what this is all about,” Sires said after the indictment was handed down. “It all comes from the other trial [Oriente]. He said he gave Rene money and he presumed that it went upstairs to me. That’s obviously not true.”
Abreu has been known as a long-time Democratic fundraiser, having served on the fundraising committees of Rep. Robert Menendez and Sen. Robert Torricelli, according to reports in various newspapers including the New York Times. He was also one of many local developers who contributed money to the campaign of former Hoboken Mayor Anthony Russo in 1997. Abreu has also been a political supporter of Sires, as well as a longtime friend.
The allegations stem from activity beginning in September, 1992 through February, 2001. Many of the loans stem from properties in North Bergen and West New York.
Nieves stands trial for allegedly accepting a bribe for assisting Abreu to obtain commercial loans. Nieves is also charged with assisting Abreu in an alleged check-kiting scheme spanning five years, which, at times, created a negative balance of more than $1 million in Abreu’s business and personal accounts, according to the indictment. Nieves is also charged with money laundering.
U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie maintained in 2002 that the Abreu trial is just another step toward his ongoing crusade toward ridding corruption in the state.
“This is all part of the continued pursuit of public corruption that I made a priority when I took over [as U.S. Attorney three years ago],” Christie said at the time.
“We’re trying to send a message to public officials that corruption, the facilitation of extortion and bribery, will not be tolerated,” Christie said in 2002. “Financial fraud is something we also take very seriously. We’re going to prosecute and these people will pay. And pay dearly with their freedom. We are vigilant and we are watching. Other than the protection against domestic terrorism, our next priority is the pursuit of public corruption.”
Krovatin did not return phone calls for this article.
In 2002, he said, “This is just the rehashing of old lies and stale allegations. It all stems from one disgraced official, former Chief Oriente, making allegations in the past. There is no reason in this hyper-technical accounting world to add these new allegations. They seized all records once [in June 1997], so the investigation has been ongoing for seven years.”
Added Krovatin at the time, “There were deposits into banks, and the rest are business records. There haven’t been any specific charges. Rene steadfastly maintains his innocence and refuses to let any of these overtures get to him. He’s resolved and determined to see this through. After conducting an investigation for five years, with four different U.S. Attorneys, it was inevitable. After spending all that time and resources, this is all that they came up with. It’s unfounded.”
The trial is expected to continue throughout July and perhaps into August.