NY Top Cop almost conned Jagdeo of US$7M

Disgraced former Commissioner of Police of New York, Bernard Kerik, was granted a lucrative US$7M ($1.4B) security contract by the Guyana government back in 2006, says a revealing book by former Newsday police reporter and columnist, Leonard Levitt.

Kerik would later lose the contract after investigations in wrongdoings by the US government intensified against him.

Titled, “NYPD Confidential- Power and Corruption in the Country’s Greatest Police Force”, and published in 2009, the book follows the rise and fall of former Police Commissioners Lee Brown, Bill Bratton, Howard Safir and the now-jailed Kerik.

A grand jury of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a 16-count indictment against Kerik on November 8, 2007, alleging conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud,

Former President Bharrat Jagdeo in discussion with Bernard Kerik back in August 2006. (Photo by Sandra Prince)

and lying to the Internal Revenue Service.

Kerik surrendered to authorities the next day and pleaded not guilty to all charges. On October 20, 2009, his bail was revoked and he was jailed pending trial. On November 5, 2009, he pleaded guilty to eight charges in a plea bargain with prosecutors who recommended a jail sentence of 27 to 33 months. Kerik was sentenced to four years in federal prison on February 18, 2010.

On March 30, 2011, he lost his appeal in federal court to have his four-year sentence reduced.

During his courtroom trial, Levitt asked Kerik, according to the book, how he was handling the situation.

“I stay mad,” he answered. The investigators had taken his passport and he could not leave the US. That ended his contracts in Guyana and in Jordan.

In August 2006, former President Bharrat Jagdeo announced that Kerik, a decorated former top cop of New York and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Kerik Group, will be an integral part of the planned restructuring of the Guyana Police Force.

The move was a criticized at the time because of investigations against the American. But Jagdeo had insisted on keeping Kerik and his company.

Kerik’s firm would have assisted in the US$20M reformation plan that government was footing through a loan from the Inter-American Development Bank.

“I met with him and he will be working with us during the post-Elections period along with the Scottish Police and the British Government in the reform process,” the President confirmed at a media conference hosted at Office of the President, which focused mainly on the August 8 wanton killings on the East Bank Demerara. At that time, a gang went on the rampage killing several persons in Bagotstown.
Kerik was fined in the United State for an ethic violation and Jagdeo had told the media his government is cognizant of this, but maintained that Kerik is being hired on the basis of his remarkable experience in law enforcement.

The President had further added that “Mr. Kerik has a firm and that firm will work with us. So it is not necessarily that Mr. Kerik would be heading a unit, but the firm will work with us on the reform of the Police Force.”

On June 30, 2006, after an eighteen-month investigation conducted by the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, Kerik pleaded “guilty” via a sworn statement in open court to two ethics violations (unclassified misdemeanors) and was ordered to pay $221,000 in fines at the 10-minute hearing.

Kerik acknowledged that he failed to document a personal loan on his annual New York City Conflict of Interest Report (a violation of the New York City Administrative Code) and accepting a gift from a New Jersey construction firm attempting to do business with the city (a violation of the New York City Charter).
On November 8, 2007, in White Plains, New York, Kerik was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy, tax fraud and making false statements.

Prosecutors say Kerik received about $255,000 in renovations to his Riverdale, Bronx, apartment from a company seeking to do business with the city of New York and concealed the income from the Internal Revenue Service.

The indictment also charged that Kerik made several false statements to the White House (in his background information statement regarding his Department of Homeland Security appointment) and other federal officials.

Kerik is currently incarcerated at a Federal prison camp, the Federal Correctional Institution, located in Cumberland, Maryland and could walk out a free man next year.