Kenny, Pone & Marliese Ljuba-Truth or Consequences

Dave Kenny is an attorney who has served on Hamilton’s Council since 2006 with his running mate Dennis Pone. Marliese Ljuba was the US government’s star witness in the corruption trial that resulted in the convictions of Mayor John Bencivengo and Hamilton Director, Rob Warney. Kenny and Pone were on Council during Bencivengo’s entire tenure as Mayor. They would have Hamilton voters believe that they never saw anything improper and were unaware of any of the illegalities relating to Ms. Ljuba’s bribery scheme that took down 3 Hamilton officials. Kenny and Pone have stated repeatedly that they never received any funds from Marliese Ljuba and were never influenced by any campaign donations from Birdsall Engineering.

Public records show that the Kenny, Pone 2009 campaign received $2200 of Illegal campaign donations funneled through Birdsall Engineering.  Despite their assertions to the contrary, NJ ELEC reports show the Kenny, Pone campaign received funds from Ljuba or someone residing in her home. A June 22, 2009 post primary filing by the Kenny, Pone campaign lists an April 2009 contribution received from a Bear Delaware address, the same address reported to Ljuba on numerous other ELEC filings. It is most interesting that the Ljuba name was omitted from the ELEC filing.

Ljuba testified under oath during the Bencivengo trail that she funneled $11,000 to Kenny and Pone in a bag of cash. The Trenton Times reported on February 27, 2013, that Ljuba had entered into a Consent Order with the State of New Jersey wherein she admitted to wrongdoing and surrendered her insurance broker’s license. The Times reported that “In the consent order and during Bencivengo’s trial Ljuba said she funnelled $11,000 to the 2006 campaign of Councilmen Dennis Pone, Dave Kenny”.

Both Kenny and Pone have denied Ljuba’s testimony is true.  Why would a sworn witness, under the penalty of perjury lie about funneling cash to 2 Councilmen who were not even the subject of the government’s investigation?  If any of you were falsely accused of corrupt behavior wouldn’t you attempt to prove your innocence?  Would you sue the person making the allegation, particularly if you were a seasoned trial attorney?  If you were a public official like Kenny and Pone, perhaps you would even submit to a lie detector test to clear your name. To the best of our knowledge the Kenny, Pone response was to just shout loudly that they had never received money from Ljuba. At a minimum, the NJ ELEC records their campaign filed suggest they are wrong!