Mayor Tony Mack, along with his brother Ralphiel Mack and longtime associate Joseph Giorgianni, are accused of plotting to accept $119,000 from a man posing as a developer, according to a copy of the criminal complaint obtained by the Star-Ledger newspaper and posted on its website.
The mayor's brother and Giorgianni acted as intermediaries to the purported parking garage developer and to his consultant, who were both cooperating with authorities, the complaint said.
Tony Mack, Ralphiel Mack and Giorgianni took $54,000 in cash bribes and anticipated getting the balance of $65,000, the complaint said.
Tony Mack was arrested at about 6:30 a.m. on Monday at his home in Trenton, said Barbara Woodruff, FBI spokeswoman in Newark, New Jersey. Giorgianni also was arrested on Monday, the FBI said. Ralphiel Mack turned himself in to authorities on Monday morning.
Giorgianni, who goes by the nicknames "JoJo" and "the Fat Man," told the purported consultant that the men were "'all looking to, uh, get healthy,' meaning make money, and that 'we been sick too long here,'" the complaint said.
The mayor has been under investigation since September 2010 by federal agents who used wiretaps to record meetings at JoJo's Steakhouse in Trenton, run by Giorgianni, and wiretaps on their telephones, the complaint said.
In July, FBI agents staged an early morning raid on Tony Mack's home and searched offices in City Hall.
Tony Mack, who the complaint said goes by the nicknames "the Little Guy" and "Napoleon," has been accused by critics of nepotism and mismanagement since taking office in 2010 in the crime-plagued, economically depressed city of 85,000.
After the FBI raid on his home in July, Tony Mack said he had done nothing wrong.
"We have not violated the public trust in any way," he said at the time. The mayor in July also denied to federal agents that he accepted any illegal cash, the complaint said.
In a search of Ralphiel Mack's home in July, federal agents found $2,500 in $100 bills with the same serial numbers as bills Giorgianni accepted from the purported consultant a month earlier, the complaint said.
In April, according to the complaint, Giorgianni told the purported consultant that the mayor was pleased with a bribe that had been paid.
"Yeah, oh yeah ... listen, you know money makes a blind man see," Giorgianni is quoted as saying.
Giorgianni also said the mayor could not be directly involved in the plot because he was "'under a microscope' due to public scrutiny," the complaint said.
An effort to recall Mack, a Democrat, failed last year when organizers did not get enough support to force a special election.
Mack was slated to appear before a federal magistrate in Trenton later on Monday, the FBI said.
(Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst, Editing by Eric Beech)
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