Investigation of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor

epercussions of his felony conviction. On November 16, 2006, nearly one year after thefelony conviction was discovered, ASA Apple was ordered to cease its waterfrontoperations by November 30, 2006, pursuant to the Waterfront Commission Act.On November 27, 2006, after receiving communication from Cardaci’s attorney,Michael DeCotiis, members of the Waterfront Commission held an internal meeting atwhich then-General Counsel Jon Deutsch proposed restructuring ASA Apple to allow thecompany to continue to operate its warehouse at the port. At the time, the relationshipbetween Deutsch and DeCotiis was not known to many of the Waterfront Commissionemployees.Shortly after the internal meeting, on December 11, 2006, WaterfrontCommission staff met with Cardaci and DeCotiis to negotiate an arrangement to allowASA Apple’s chief customer, a salt importer, to continue storing salt at ASA Apple’swarehouse. General Counsel Jon Deutsch, Director of Law Joy Kelly, Director ofLicensing Peter Goldfinger, Assistant Director of Licensing Jeffrey Schoen, Director ofAudit and Control Frank Nastasi, 20 and other members of the Divisions of Law and Auditand Control attended the meeting. At the meeting, it was agreed that Anchor Logistics, acompany owned by Cardaci’s wife, would assume ownership and control of thewaterfront warehouse. Former Assistant Counsel Brian McCann attended the meetingand summarized the agreement in a memorandum, stating, “It was agreed that…a newcompany named Anchor Logistics, Inc. would be created and would contract with DeadSea Works Inc., to transport salt (emphasis added).”The Waterfront Commission’s own records reveal that Anchor Logistics was nota new company. Rather, Anchor Logistics managed some operations for ASA Apple’swaterfront warehouse, and ASA Apple was its only client. Moreover, at the time theWaterfront Commission agreed to allow Anchor Logistics to assume control of ASAApple’s waterfront warehouse, Cardaci, not his wife, was the owner of Anchor Logistics.The Commission’s pre-licensing audit of Anchor Logistics disclosed that AnchorLogistics was first created in 1995, and that Cardaci transferred ownership of thecompany to his wife, Lisa Campagna, on December 31, 2006, three weeks after Deutscharranged the transfer of ASA Apple’s waterfront operations to Anchor Logistics. 21 ASAApple continued to operate warehouses outside of the Waterfront Commission’sjurisdiction, and Campagna stated that she would continue to be employed as ASAApple’s vice president after assuming control of Anchor Logistics. At a WaterfrontCommission hearing, Campagna stated that she intended to share funds with ASA Appleand that the two companies would maintain a business relationship. 22 DeCotiisrepresented Campagna and Anchor Logistics as well as ASA Apple during this process.20 All of the aforementioned people either no longer work at the Waterfront Commission or have beenreassigned to different positions.21 It should be noted that the Waterfront Commission Audit Report dated October 30, 2006, referencedabove, lists Anchor Logistics as an affiliated company of ASA Apple.22 A Waterfront Commission Audit Report indicates that, in 2005, ASA Apple paid $85,000 in“management fees” to Anchor Logistics.26