Charles Kushner, a multimillionaire business tycoon who bankrolled political campaigns across New Jersey and once conferred with heads of state, was sentenced Friday to two years in prison.
U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares said Kushner's standing as an influential businessman and generous philanthropist didn't excuse "the evil nature" of his conduct, which included tax fraud, violating election law and hiring a prostitute to seduce witnesses cooperating with a federal probe into his finances.
"These were indeed crimes driven by greed and power and revenge" by a man "who put himself above the law," Linares said in Newark.
Under a plea agreement with the government, the judge sentenced Kushner to the maximum term possible under federal guidelines. He also fined him $40,000 and ordered that Kushner participate in a mental health program while in federal prison.
Linares said he ordered counseling largely because he couldn't "reconcile" the two portraits of Kushner - a good family man and community benefactor, as painted by his supporters, and the "revengeful, hateful" schemer who admitted recruiting a prostitute so he could film her having sex with his own brother-in-law.
"These actions are incomprehensible to the court," Linares said.
By his own admission, Kushner's fall from grace grew from a family feud that pitted him against his siblings. Coiffed and clad in a navy suit, he told the judge Friday that the internecine fight had eventually consumed him and propelled him to do things he now believes were "reprehensible."
"My poor judgment was rooted in a very sad, very tragic family dispute that just got out of control," Kushner said. "I retaliated against my brother and sister, my own flesh and blood. What I did was wrong, and I say that in front of my own children."
As he spoke, Kushner's wife, Seryl, who was seated next to the couple's four grown children, wiped away tears.
Kushner, the son of Holocaust survivors and onetime chairman of the $1 billion-strong Kushner Companies in Florham Park, must report to a federal prison in Montgomery, Ala., by May 9.
The 50-year-old real estate magnate from Livingston told Linares on Friday that his legal ordeal will make him "a better man."
"I hope to resume a positive and productive role in society when this chapter is over," Kushner said.
Federal prosecutors argued that Kushner's actions went far beyond a quest for revenge.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Resnik said Kushner, then a prominent Democratic fund-raiser and the top donor to former Gov. James E. McGreevey's campaign in 2001, viewed laws as surmountable hurdles to his personal aims. When they blocked his path, Resnik said, Kushner launched "a systematic assault" on those people or institutions that blocked "his ability to amass wealth" and "influence political action."
For instance, he said, Kushner knowingly committed tax fraud by falsely writing charitable donations off as business expenses. Then he made illegal campaign donations that exceeded federal limits, disguising their true origin by putting them in his employees' names, the prosecutor said.
"Here the defendant sought to subvert the democratic process," Resnik told the judge.
When he learned that his brother and sister were helping federal prosecutors probing his business dealings, Kushner attempted to blackmail the siblings to prevent their further cooperation.
"It is a threat to the entire judicial system," Resnik said.
Linares ordered Kushner to pay back taxes and penalties to the Internal Revenue Service and said he must serve two years' probation after his release from custody. Meanwhile, the probe related to Kushner and his associates continues, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie said Friday.
Kushner pleaded guilty in August to 16 counts of filing false tax returns, one count of retaliating against a federal witness and one count of making false statements to the Federal Election Commission.
He said he paid $25,000 to a New York City call girl, with the help of a corrupt police officer and a private investigator, officials said. Intermediaries videotaped his brother-in-law, William Schulder, having sex with the prostitute in a Bridgewater motel room in December 2003.
Kushner said that in May 2004, shortly after his business associates learned they were targets of a federal grand jury investigation, he ordered that a copy of the tape and still photographs of the encounter be mailed to Schulder and his wife, Kushner's sister, Esther.
The judge on Friday read portions of a letter written to him by Esther Schulder, asking for "appropriate" leniency.
"Despite all that has happened, Charles is still the son of my parents," she wrote. "Hopefully, this will enable future generations within the family to find some peace."
