NY Times: Inquiry by City Found Kerik Tie to Building Firm [View All]

[Osamasux]

By ERIC LIPTON and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

In June 2000, two months before Bernard B. Kerik was appointed police commissioner, New York City's top investigative agency learned that he had a social relationship with the owner of a New Jersey construction company suspected of having business ties to organized crime figures, city documents show.

In two days of testimony before the city's Department of Investigation, the owner of the company, Interstate Industrial Corporation, spoke frequently of Mr. Kerik as he tried to establish why his company was reputable enough to do business with the city.

The company's security director, Lawrence Ray, had just been charged with stock fraud. Asked why he had hired Mr. Ray in 1998, the owner, Frank DiTommaso, said he did so in part because Mr. Kerik had vouched for him. Mr. DiTommaso also detailed his social relationship with Mr. Kerik, who was then the city's correction commissioner, and mentioned that he had employed Donald Kerik, the commissioner's brother.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/nyregion/14kerik.html?ei=5094&en=6bc512697339c1ac&hp=&ex=1103000400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print&position=