FREDERICK McCARTHY SENTENCED FOR HIS
ROLE IN TREASURER'S OFFICE SCANDAL
The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut announced today that Senior United States District Judge Ellen B. Burns sentenced FREDERICK W. McCARTHY, age 62, of 1519 North Ocean Way, Palm Beach, Florida, to 12 months and one day imprisonment.
Judge Burns also ordered McCARTHY to serve three years of supervised release, to perform 500 hours of community service during that time, and to pay a fine in the amount of $40,000. Sentence was imposed this afternoon in New Haven federal court.
On September 4, 2003, McCARTHY and Lisa A. Thiesfield pleaded guilty to charges involving the payment of unlawful rewards to the former Connecticut Treasurer Paul J. Silvester. Silvester served as Connecticut Treasurer from July 1997 until January 1999.
As Treasurer, Silvester had the sole authority to decide how the assets of the Connecticut State Pension Retirement and Trust Fund were invested. McCARTHY, the chairman of Triumph Capital Group, Inc., a Boston investment firm, admitted that to reward Silvester for placing an investment of Connecticut pension funds with Triumph, he gave consulting contracts of one million dollars each to Silvester's close associates, Thiesfield and Christopher Stack.
Thiesfield admitted that she accepted payments under the contract knowing that they had been paid as a reward to Silvester. Silvester authorized the investment of $200 million of state pension assets in a Triumph Capital related investment fund, Triumph Connecticut-II, in November 1998, after he lost the election to the current Connecticut Treasurer Denise Nappier.
Thiesfield is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Burns on March 2, 2004 at 2:00 p.m.
Silvester pleaded guilty on September 23, 1999, to one count of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Statute ("RICO") and one count of Money Laundering. On November 20, 2003, he was sentenced to 51 months imprisonment.
On July 16, 2003, Triumph Capital, Inc. and its Vice President and General Counsel, Charles B. Spadoni were convicted of RICO, RICO Conspiracy, Bribery, Mail/Wire Fraud, and Obstruction of Justice. Before McCARTHY's sentencing today, Triumph Capital, Inc., was sentenced by Judge Burns to pay a fine in the amount of $4,000,000. Spadoni is currently scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Burns on March 23, 2004.
These cases were investigated by Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Nora R. Dannehy, Leonard C. Boyle, William J. Nardini, and David A. Ring.
