FOX 5/WNYW: New Jersey Political Corruption Scandal
New York office Managing Partner George Stamboulidis was featured on FOX 5/WNYW's "Good Day NY" program on July 24, 2009. Stamboulidis, a former federal prosecutor in New York and New Jersey, discussed the recent sweeping corruption indictments which named three New Jersey mayors, two state legislators, a deputy mayor, a city council president and five rabbis for their alleged involvement in an international money laundering ring, which even included the illegal sale of body parts.
Asked for his reaction to the scope of the investigation, Stamboulidis said, "Public corruption is nothing new to municipal government . . . [but] the scope of this is much larger than other cases that have been brought down and the investigation has been going on for so many years—this is now the third phase of the investigation."
Stamboulidis was asked to provide insight on possible defenses that might be put forth by those indicted. He noted that a possible defense would be entrapment and discussed the conditions which could support or negate that defense.
"While public and political corruption will come and go," said Stamboulidis, "this one seems to have a little bit of everything." Stamboulidis did note that these were "dual and separate track investigations that really didn't overlap except in one instance, and except that they had the common thread of cooperating witnesses."