A Newark nonprofit tied to associates of Cory Booker acted as a clearinghouse for lucrative construction contracts in exchange for donations to his charity and mayoral campaign, The Post has learned.
The Newark Downtown Core Redevelopment Corp., founded in 2005 to buy land for the Prudential Center and develop the surrounding area, had not completed its mission when it was dissolved in 2011 and had doled out multimillion-dollar contracts to companies that made donations to Booker’s pet causes.
Among those firms was the largest demolition company in New Jersey, which raked in $4.7 million from the nonprofit in 2007 and 2008.
“The Newark Downtown Core Redevelopment Corp. was supposed to be a nonprofit that would help eliminate downtown blight, according to Mayor Cory Booker,” said Ken Boehm, chairman of ethics watchdog group National Legal and Policy Center. “Instead, the group was plagued with cronyism, overpaid political hacks and mismanagement, leading to tens of millions of dollars in wasted public and private funds.”
After Booker took office as Newark mayor in July 2006, his cronies migrated to the NDCRC. Pablo Fonseca, Booker’s chief of staff and former campaign manager, served as a board member in 2007 and 2008. And Jermaine James, who was Booker’s campaign treasurer, worked as the organization’s director of real-estate development with a salary of $134,000 in 2010.
The NDCRC, as it was known, had $65 million to spend in its mission to create parks, develop a hotel and redesign downtown city streets.
Among those who would benefit from the NDCRC was Nicholas Mazzocchi, who owned the largest demolition firm in New Jersey. Mazzocchi Wrecking got a $3,188,261 contract in 2007 and $1,515,744 in 2008.
The company secured the initial contract after Mazzocchi donated $5,000 in 2006 to Newark Now, a Booker charity. He later gave $2,000 in 2007 to Empower Newark, a PAC tied to Booker.
The initial donation was likely not a coincidence, according to FBI wiretaps in a 2010 corruption case involving Booker’s deputy mayor, Ronald Salahuddin — who was caught on tape telling Mazzocchi he’d get him work around the Prudential Center if Mazzocchi gave money to specific causes and hired a subcontractor linked to Salahuddin.
Fonseca was fingered as the city official who applied pressure to give companies work, according to court papers.
Salahuddin was convicted in 2011 of conspiracy to commit extortion and sentenced in February 2013 to one year in prison. Fonseca was not charged.
Scafar Contracting gave $6,000 to Empower Newark in 2007 and $2,000 in 2008 — and received a $6 million contract from NDCRC in 2007 and another contract for $1.1 million in 2008.
Sholom “Sol” Moskowitz donated $3,000 in 2007 to Booker’s campaign. In December 2007, Moskowitz’s company was selected by the NDCRC as a hotel developer. The nonprofit disregarded the fact that Moskowitz pleaded guilty in 2006 in an income-tax-evasion and bank-fraud scheme.
William Crawley, the former head of the NDCRC, did not return a call for comment.