HOBOKEN – A former 2nd Ward councilman who is also a former campaign aide to former Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano is being sentenced Tuesday afternoon. Michael Schaffer plead guilty last June to conspiracy to commit extortion.
At his plea hearing in June 2010, Schaffer admitted that, while Cammarano was an at-large councilman for the city and candidate for the position of mayor, Schaffer accepted three unlawful cash campaign contributions for Cammarano totaling $15,000 from a government witness, who purported to be a real estate developer. Schaffer also admitted in court that on June 16, 2009, he accepted an additional $10,000 cash campaign contribution from the witness who was cooperating with the FBI, which eventually led to the arrest of both Shaffer and Cammarano.
The arrests were part of a statewide sting operation into political corruption, “Operation Bid Rig.”
Cammarano is currently serving a two year prison sentence in Lewisburg Federal Prison in Pennsylvania.
Schaffer resigned from the North Hudson Sewerage Utilities board last year.
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