Details emerge in Flora Cafaro, Yavorcik case

Yavorcik/F. Cafaro Bill of Particulars

Download as PDF

Document

The of Ohio vs. Martin Yavorcik and Flora Cafaro.

Photo

Flora Cafaro

Photo

Photo by: Robert K. Yosay

The Vindicator ( Youngstown)

Martin Yavorcik

By Peter Milliken

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

milliken@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Flora Cafaro, part owner of the Cafaro Co., gave Atty. Martin Yavorcik more money in 2008 than the $40,000 that was officially reported for her contribution to his political campaign, special prosecutors allege.

Details in support of the money-laundering charges against Flora Cafaro and Yavorcik are contained in a bill of particulars filed Tuesday by Dennis P. Will, Lorain County prosecutor; Paul M. Nick, chief investigative counsel for the Ohio Ethics Commission; and David P. Muhek and Anthony Cillo, assistant Lorain County prosecutors.

Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains had referred matters concerning the county’s purchase of Oakhill Renaissance Place to the ethics commission for investigation in 2007. The bill of particulars, at the very end, drops a hint of what is to come in cases against others:

“This is not the first time Anthony Cafaro or other members of the enterprise have made clandestine payments, and the state will seek to offer and introduce other acts evidence,” the special prosecutors wrote at the end of the bill without offering further explanation.

Anthony M. Cafaro Sr., retired president of the Cafaro Co., is Flora Cafaro’s brother.

Yavorcik ran unsuccessfully in 2008 as an independent candidate for prosecutor against Gains, the Democratic incumbent.

Yavorcik received a $15,000 check, dated March 20, 2008, which was issued by the Cafaro Co. and signed by Flora Cafaro, the bill alleges.

An invoice from “Martin Yavorcik, trial attorney,” dated the same date, was made to look like it was for legal services rendered Feb. 20, 2008, for William M. Ferraro of the American Gladiator Fitness Center.

Yet Yavorcik failed to report the $15,000 as income on his 2008 federal income-tax return, and Ferraro denied ever meeting or using Yavorcik for legal services, the prosecutors said.

Yavorcik issued a check March 21, 2008, from his checking account, under “Martin Yavorcik Esq.” for $15,000, payable to the “Global Strategies Group,” a political-consulting organization, the bill said.

Global Strategies issued a memorandum dated May 5, 2008, which purported to address an April 2008 survey of likely voters, which compared and contrasted the political viability of Gains and Yavorcik in the prosecutors’ race.

Yavorcik failed to list the true source of the $15,000 on his campaign-finance report by concealing the actual funding source and misrepresenting the payment for the poll as an in-kind contribution from Yavorcik, himself, the prosecutors said.

Yavorcik and Flora Cafaro conducted the financial transactions “knowing the property involved was the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity and did so in a manner calculated to conceal or disguise the nature, location, source, ownership or control of the property or to avoid a transaction reporting requirement” under federal or state law, the prosecutors alleged.

The check signed by Flora Cafaro “was disguised to look like a payment for legal services on behalf of her son’s business” and was instead used to pay for the election poll, the prosecutors said.

The money-laundering charge is a third-degree felony, carrying a fine up to $10,000 and a prison term of one to five years.

Flora Cafaro and Yavorcik’s names are contained at the end of a 73-count Mahoning County grand-jury indictment issued July 28.

But they are not among the eight defendants charged with conspiring criminally to prevent or delay the move of the Mahoning County Department of Job and Family Services to Oakhill Renaissance Place.

JFS moved in July 2007 from Cafaro Co.-owned rented quarters to Oakhill, which the county had purchased in 2006. Oakhill is the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center.

Those charged with conspiracy and other criminal counts are Cafaro Sr.; the Cafaro Co. and its affiliates, the Ohio Valley Mall Co. and the Marion Plaza Inc.; Mahoning County Commissioner John A. McNally IV; county Auditor Michael V. Sciortino; former county Treasurer John B. Reardon; and John Zachariah, former county JFS director.

Joe Bell, director of corporate communications for the Cafaro Co., declined to comment on the bill of particulars because he said it doesn’t make any specific allegations concerning the Cafaro Co.

Yavorcik’s lawyer, J. Gerald Ingram, did not respond to a request to comment.

In an earlier interview, Atty. David Betras, Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman, said he was “very skeptical” of the money-laundering charge against Yavorcik and Flora Cafaro.

If she lawfully acquired that money, “she’s not laundering the money,” Betras said. “Maybe it’s an illegal campaign contribution. You’re going to see a big fight in this case over that.”