John Cafaro Bio

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John J. Cafaro, the recently retired vice president of the Cafaro Co.

April 1984: Welcomes Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale to his Liberty home.

April 1987: Buys into the New Avanti Motor Corp. of South Bend, Ind., and moves the company to Youngstown. Within about three years, the company lays off its workers and closes the plant.

Summer 1997: Forms USAerospace Group, a Manassas, Va., company that sold laser visual landing systems for airplanes.

November 2002: Sentenced to 15 months’ probation and fined $150,000 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to bribe U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. regarding the aerospace company.

July 2007: Loses in a bench trial of his company’s lawsuit to rescind Mahoning County’s purchase of Oakhill Renaissance Place, to which the county’s Department of Job and Family Services moved as it ended its 19-year tenancy in the Cafaro Co.-owned Garland Plaza.

December 2009: Retires as Cafaro Co. vice president.

Monday: U.S. attorney charges Cafaro with making a false statement regarding a contribution to the unsuccessful 2004 congressional campaign of his daughter, Capri Cafaro, who is now Ohio Senate minority leader.

Source: Vindicator files