After testifying of his crimes and cooperating with the FBI, Acosta changed his testimony and said everything he had said before was not true. Page 9, first paragraph "The government represented to the District Court that Mr. Acosta had not retracted his statement during witness preparations and that the first time they heard about it when was Mr. Acosta testified."
This is the racket deal that Silvio Acosta and Franco Zanardelli had. The West New York code official would sent Acosta to building owned by developers and home owner to give violations. Afterward Zanardelli will coerce the violators into paying bribes. Zanardelli was caught and Acosta testified against Zanardelli in exchange for a jail free card. Zanardelli and Acosta continued to cooperate with the federal government and helped the federal government to catch developer who would bribe code official in exchange for building permits, Certificate of Occupancy etc.
In the government documents attached to this post, it clearly shows Silvio Acosta testifying he will ignore code violation on Zanardelli orders, and that this behavior was on going for two years. Then he changes his testimony during trial because he did not want to admit he was guilty of committing crimes during cross examination.
He is now the Chief of Staff to Mayor Roque and he is also the deputy Mayor in West New York. Furthermore, he is a member of the planning board in West New York. This is an individual who committed criminal activity as a government official in the past, but also that violated the construction code by adding six illegal unit to a property he owns. This is the type of people that Mayor Roque hires to represent you interest in Municipal Government. Mr Acosta has two salaries of more than 100K in two position at West New York city hall from your hard earned tax dollars!
References:
United States of America v. Herman Friedman (D.C. Crim. Action No. 09-cr-00132)
Website link:
http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca3/10-2235/102235p-2011-09-28.pdf?1317234167
West New York Property Owner Admits Bribing Building Official; Another Owner Recently Indicted.
http://www.fbi.gov/newark/press-releases/2009/nk031109.htm
West New York man admits bribing building official.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/0/west_new_york_man_admits_bribi.html
West New York's new deputy mayor owes town more than $500k in fines for illegally adding apartments to building he owns.
Website Link:
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2011/08/west_new_yorks_new_deputy_mayo.html