Guy Catrillo, an employee in the Jersey City Mayor’s ‘Action Bureau’ and Maher Khalil, an employee in Jersey City’s Health and Human Services Department, are no longer employed by the city retroactively, as of yesterday.
That was the result of both pleading guilty to charges against them in federal court in Newark on Wednesday. Both men were among the 44 arrested in July as the federal government’s probe into money laundering and political corruption.
City spokesperson Jennifer Morrill issued the following statement:
“Maher Khalil and Guy Catrillo will be terminated from their employment with the city of Jersey City having entered a guilty plea in federal court, effective the date of their guilty plea. We will make no further comment on the matter as this is an ongoing federal investigation.”
Catrillo pleaded guilty to charges of accepting $15,000 cash in three payments from the federal government’s “cooperating witness” Solomon Dwek in exchange for helping Dwek to get approvals on Dwek’s purported development project on Garfield Avenue in Jersey City. Khalil plead guilty to accepting a total of $72,500 in cash payments from Dwek to help him with development in Jersey City by connecting him with other local officials such as Mariano Vega and Edward Cheatam.
Catrillo had worked for the city since November 2003 and was earning a salary of $41,893 and Khalil had been employed since April 2002 with a salary of $51,425. – RK