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5.22.2001 00:05
Cianci group seeks court OK to pay bills
• A federal judge has frozen accounts of the group Friends of Mayor Cianci in connection with corruption charges against the mayor.
BY TRACY BRETON
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE
-- Vincent A. Cianci Jr.'s campaign organization has gone to federal court asking that a restraining order freezing its assets be vacated or modified so it can pay its creditors.
In papers filed late last Friday in U.S. District Court, the Friends of Mayor Cianci says that the government's need to preserve the campaign's assets "does not outweigh the hardships that would be imposed" on the campaign organization and its creditors if the Friends of Cianci cannot pay its bills.
At the government's request, a federal judge issued a restraining order April 3 -- the day after Cianci's indictment on corruption charges -- freezing three bank and brokerage accounts of the mayor's campaign organization. The order, signed by Chief U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres, means that the mayor no longer has access to those campaign funds.
In recent years, according to quarterly state campaign-finance reports, the campaign fund has had more than $600,000 in its accounts.
The government asked for the restraining order because, if the mayor is convicted, the campaign money would be subject to forfeiture. The indictment against Cianci charges that the Friends of Cianci was illegally enriched by shaking down city contractors, including $250,000 from tow-truck operators.
Lawyer Mark L. Smith, who represents the Friends of Cianci, said in court papers that the restraining order should be lifted or changed so the Friends of Cianci can have access to "sufficient funds to pay its ordinary, necessary and regular business expenses as they become due . . . "
Smith says that if the restraining order is left in "full force and effect," Cianci's campaign organization would suffer "irreparable damage in the legitimate conduct of its business."
The government, Smith says, would not suffer any injury if the restraining order were modified, since all bills that would be paid "would be subject to . . . review under campaign spending reporting requirements."
Smith says in his motion, however, that in the event of the conviction of Cianci or any of his co-defendants, the government should not be allowed to recoup any money paid out between now and the time of the verdict.
The mayor's campaign organization has been under scrutiny in recent years, not only by federal Plunder Dome investigators but also by the state Board of Elections and an ongoing statewide grand-jury probe.
Last year, The Journal reported that Cianci had spent thousands of dollars in campaign money on personal expenses in recent years, including Christmas parties, personal holiday gifts and birthday parties for his two grandchildren. Law-enforcement and election authorities subsequently moved to investigate those expenses.
It was unclear yesterday how many bills have piled up with the campaign since Cianci's indictment, or how much creditors are owed or for what.
Smith filed a memorandum of law with his motion to lift the restraining order, but it was filed directly with Judge Torres, and not put in the public record.
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