HOBOKEN — In the complaint against a Hoboken City Hall employee who was arrested Wednesday morning, FBI officials paint a picture of Hoboken’s divided politics and of an attempt to allegedly slip private internal communications to other officials.
The complaint against arrested city Information Technologies employee Patrick Ricciardi notes:
“As part of the investigation, law enforcement learned that the City’s political culture is currently divided into two main factions. The current Mayor was sworn in to office as Acting Mayor on or about July 31, 2009, after the previous mayor was arrested on federal corruption charges …
“The investigation has also revealed that many of the elected and appointed officials in the City retain strong ties to the previous administration or are otherwise politically opposed to the Mayor…
“Evidence of this schism in the City is apparent through the postings of articles and comments on City-related issues to different weblogs, or blogs.
“Given this environment, after learning of the possible leaks unauthorized disclosures, on or about May 16, 2011, the Mayor’s office hired a private company to perform a security audit.”
The FBI statement says that Ricciardi allegedly confessed in May to allegedly intercepting e-mails meant for the mayor’s administration. It also says that a lower-ranking city employee first confessed to the same allegation, but it was determined that he was only doing so because of his friendship with Ricciardi.
The statement also mentions past and future city officials who allegedly requested the allegedly leaked communications.
The complaint states, “Defendant RICCIARDI created the Archive File, and then [allegedly] directed the Intercepted E-Mails to the Archive File, so that he could ‘spy’ on the Mayor and the Mayor’s Office Employees, and determine whether his job was secure. Defendant RICCIARDI [allegedly] forwarded certain Intercepted E-Mails to Individual 1 and Individual 2 at the request of Individual 1 and Individual 2.”
According to the complaint, individual 1 is a current city official. Individual 2 is a former city official.
The complaint says that the FBI found evidence that e-mails were forwarded to those individuals.
Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Dawn Zimmer spoke with the Reporter about the issue.
She declined to speculate whether people who allegedly received the e-mails were her political opponents. She said she did not know who might have received them.
She said Ricciardi was suspeded in May, and could not comment on whether he will now be terminated.
“My role has been,” she said, “that there have been concerns about potential wrongoing. From there it rose to the level where I felt it was my role to have evidence turned over to the FBI. I have complete confidence in the U.S. Attorney’s Office and I believe they will continue investigating and follow it wherever it leads.”
She said she did not know whether individual officials allegedly receiving any leaked communications could or might be arrested.
Meanwhile, one of the mayor’s most visible opponents, Councilwoman Beth Mason, called for the release of the names of those who allegedly received the e-mails.
In an e-mail to constituents, Mason wrote: “Also, included in the indictment are three unidentified individuals who are simply described as (1) a City municipal official, (2) a former City municipal official, and (3) a City municipal employee. The names of these individuals should be released immediately. The people of Hoboken have a right to know how their trust was violated.”
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To read the full FBI complaint, click here.
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