Charles Kushner Pleads Guilty

The plea bargain caps a federal investigation that stretched out over near a year and a half. Specifically, he admitted to Judge Jose Linares in US District Court here that by illegally claiming $1 million in charitable deductions, he defrauded the federal government of an estimated $300,000. Kushner also pleaded guilty to the government's charge that he hid improper campaign contributions from the Federal Election Commission.

As far as the witness retaliation charge, Kushner admitted in court that he arranged a videotaped tryst between that government witness, who happens to be his brother-in-law, and a prostitute. "[Kushner] is, in fact, acknowledging that what he did was wrong, and he wants to bring the entire matter to closure," reads a joint written statement issued by his defense attorneys, Jeffrey Smith and Alfred DeCotiis. "He doesn't want to put his [family] through a lengthy criminal proceeding, or to jeopardize the future of the employees of Kushner Cos."

The plea bargain also puts an exclamation point on the fall from grace of one of New Jersey's most prominent developers. His company has a portfolio of some 25,000 rental apartment units, plus commercial holdings of about 7.5 million sf in several states. The various companies under the Kushner umbrella are also involved in banking, insurance, brokerage and hospitality.

Kushner has also been linked prominently to the travails of Gov. James McGreevey, who last week announced his resignation. He has long been a close confidante of the governor, and his top campaign contributor in terms of total dollars.

Until a year ago, when he bowed out as the federal probe into his affairs began to catch up with him, Kushner was a board member and McGreevey's handpicked choice to be the next chairman of the Port Authority of NY/NJ. And it was Kushner who, a few years ago, gave a job to and signed the working papers for Golan Cipel, an Israeli citizen who figures prominently in the McGreevey situation.