Jan.14, 2010

A Democratic political consultant from Jersey City who was charged in last summer's massive corruption sting was formally indicted yesterday for allegedly accepting $30,000 in bribes from an undercover government informant.

Joseph Cardwell, 68, is charged with trying to help secure development approvals for the informant, who posed as a dishonest real estate developer attempting to buy influence with public officials. Cardwell was initially arrested in July and charged along with 44 others in the sweeping money-laundering and bribery probe.

Cardwell's lawyer, Henry E. Klingeman, said he would plead not guilty.

"Now that Mr. Cardwell has been indicted, we look forward to receiving the evidence," Klingeman said.

The informant, a failed Monmouth County developer named Solomon Dwek, began working with the FBI in 2006 after being charged with bank fraud. He spent years secretly recording conversations with rabbis who supposedly laundered money and public officials who allegedly took bribes.

Nine people have pleaded guilty in the case. Cardwell, a former top adviser to late Jersey City Mayor and state Sen. Glenn Cunningham, is the 12th defendant to be indicted.

The single-count indictment, handed up by a grand jury in Newark, accuses him of accepting two $10,000 payments from Dwek in exchange for promising to deliver bribes and introducing him to public officials who could help secure permits for a luxury condominium project in Jersey City.

Cardwell accepted a third $10,000 payment, which he promised to deliver to a director within the Jersey City municipal government, according to the indictment. The director -- identified in the indictment only as "JC Official" -- met with Cardwell and Dwek, but he did not take the money and suggested it be used to buy tickets to political fundraisers, authorities said.

Carl Czaplicki, director Jersey City's department of housing, economic development and commerce, acknowledged in July that he was the official. He has not been charged.