JERSEY CITY AND BEYOND – Guy Catrillo, an ex-official with the Jersey City Planning Department, has been released from federal prison after serving about 16 months of a an 18-month sentence, according to NJ.com.
One of 44 public officials and religious leaders arrested in July 2009 as part of the federal investigation known as Operation Bid Rig, Catrillo was among the first of several who pleaded guilty to corruption charges. Two others were later arrested as part of the sting operation, bringing the total number of those ensnared to 46.
In September 2009 Catrillo pleaded guilty to accepting three cash payments from Solomon Dwek, a government cooperating witness. Catrillo admitted he accepted three cash payments, totaling $15,000, in exchange for helping Dwek to get approvals on a phony development project on Garfield Avenue in Jersey City. (The development project did not, in fact, exist and was invented by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as part of the sting operation.)
In January 2010 U.S. District Court Judge Jose Linares sentenced Catrillo to an 18-month sentence and a $4,000 fine. He had faced as many as 20 years behind bars.