The New York Times > New York Region > The Nominee's Past: Beyond the Disclosure About Kerik's Nanny, More Questions Were Lurking

The New York Times > New York Region > The Nominee's Past: Beyond the Disclosure About Kerik's Nanny, More Questions Were Lurking: "By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM and KEVIN FLYNN | Published: December 13, 2004

hile serving as New York City correction commissioner in the late 1990's, Bernard B. Kerik spoke to the city's Trade Waste Commission on behalf of a close friend who was helping a company suspected of mob connections try to get a license from the city, according to a former commission executive.

The conversation was part of a web of relationships Mr. Kerik developed with officials of a New Jersey construction company long suspected by New York authorities of connections to organized crime. The company, Interstate Industrial Corporation, hired Mr. Kerik's close friend Lawrence Ray, the best man at Mr. Kerik's wedding, to help with its licensing problems. Mr. Ray said yesterday that he gave Mr. Kerik more than $7,000 in cash and other gifts while Mr. Kerik was commissioner of correction and the police. The gifts were first reported in The Daily News yesterday.

Interstate also hired Mr. Kerik's brother, Donald Kerik ...