DALLAS—Fernando Hernandez pleaded guilty this morning before U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay to one count of receiving a bribe by a public official, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. Hernandez, 33, of Dallas, faces a maximum statutory sentence of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Lindsay on March 29, 2010.

Hernandez was arrested on October 9, 2009, at his IRS office in Dallas on the felony bribery charge outlined in an indictment returned by a grand jury in Dallas earlier that week. He was released on a personal recognizance bond.

In plea documents filed in court, Hernandez, then an employee of the IRS, admitted that on June 3, 2005, he sought and accepted a $2000 cash payment from a U.S. taxpayer in return for Hernandez’s promise that he would ensure that no IRS representative would audit that taxpayers return.

The case is being investigated by the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development – Office of Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorney David L. Jarvis is in charge of the prosecution.

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Solomon Dwek, the fraudster-turned-informant who anchored last year’s sweeping FBI sting, returned to the witness stand today and recounted his epic real estate swindles and named a string of current and former Monmouth County officials he claims to have bribed.

Testifying in the corruption trial of a Bergen County mayor, Dwek told a federal jury in Newark that before he began wearing a wire for federal investigators he regularly bribed politicians to help him secure building approvals, including mayors and councilmen from Long Branch and West Long Branch.

“If they were in power, I would have them in my pockets,” said Dwek, a 38-year-old rabbi’s son who began cooperating with federal authorities after being charged in 2006 with a $50 million bank fraud.

Dwek said the politicians who took payoffs from him included Long Branch Mayor Adam Schneider, who won a sixth term this year; and ex-West Long Branch Mayor Paul Zambrano, who admitted in 2005 to taking payoffs from a different informant.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

• Full coverage of the New Jersey corruption probe

• Solomon Dwek again relays tales of his illegal activities as trial of Ridgefield Mayor Suarez opens

• Solomon Dwek to take stand in corruption trial of Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez

• Attorneys offer differing accounts of Ridgefield mayor’s alleged acceptance of bribe

• Prosecutors say they have hidden video of Ridgefield mayor agreeing to take bribe

• Ridgefield Mayor Suarez asks judge to limit evidence that can be presented in his corruption trial

Schneider said today he never took an illegal payoff from Dwek, saying the informant’s testimony was “absolutely false.” Attempts to reach Zambrano, who was sentenced to one year, were unsuccessful. During two previous trials, Dwek alluded to giving bribes to Schneider and Zambrano. Today was the first time he identified them by name.

The informant’s assertions today came in the trial of Anthony R. Suarez, mayor of Ridgefield, and Vincent Tabbachino, a former police officer from nearby Guttenberg. Suarez, a 43-year-old Democrat, is accused of taking a $10,000 bribe from Dwek, who posed as a developer trying to buy off public officials. Authorities say Tabbachino delivered the money.

They were charged last year along with 44 others including five rabbis, three mayors and two state legislators. At the crux was Dwek, who traversed New Jersey with a hidden camera as he tried to convince rabbis to launder money and politicians to take bribes.

Suarez’s lawyers said he met three times with Dwek, but never took a bribe. Tabbachino’s attorney contends he tried to return the $10,000 he accepted.

During his five hours on the witness stand, Dwek told jurors how he bilked millions from friends and relatives through a massive real estate fraud that led to him agreeing to work undercover for the FBI in hopes of minimizing his prison time. In addition to the mayors, Dwek testified that he bribed former West Long Branch councilman Joseph DeLisa and ex-Long Branch councilman John Zambrano. They both pleaded guilty in 2006 to bribery cases unrelated to Dwek. Their lawyers did not return calls seeking comment.

Star-Ledger reporter MaryAnn Spoto contributed to this report.