Rhode Island Illegal Gambling and Corruption

4 charged in RI corruption agree to plead guilty
By Ian MacDougall

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Three former North Providence town councilmen and a businessman agreed on Wednesday to plead guilty to corruption charges in several schemes that included soliciting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to approve zoning changes.

Former councilmen Joseph Burchfield, Raymond Douglas III and John Zambarano, along with Edward Imondi, a developer accused of acting as a middleman, agreed in court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Providence to plead guilty to charges of conspiracy, extortion and bribery. The men also agreed to jointly forfeit $46,000, the total amount of the bribes they received.

Zambarano also agreed to plead guilty to mail fraud and conspiracy for his part in a separate insurance fraud case, and Douglas agreed to plead guilty on gambling charges.

Burchfield, Douglas and Imondi are scheduled to enter their pleas in U.S. District Court in Providence on Monday, said Jim Martin, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Rhode Island. Zambarano is slated to enter his plea on Tuesday.

Conspiracy is punishable by up to five years in prison, while bribery and extortion carry sentences of up to 10 years and 20 years in prison, respectively.

The three councilmen were arrested last year after an FBI investigation captured several conversations about the schemes in audio recordings.

They were ultimately indicted in four schemes to solicit bribes from businesses in the town. In one, they took a $25,000 bribe in exchange for a zoning change to allow a supermarket to be built. In another, they demanded a $75,000 bribe, but received $21,000, for a zoning change to approve a residential mill development. Imondi was accused of facilitating the mill project bribe and collecting a portion of the payment in return. The councilmen also solicited two other bribes from a bar owner and restaurant, but those were never paid.

Their efforts to solicit a bribe from the bar owner was one of the alleged extortion attempts caught on tape.

"Are you (expletive) nuts? Nobody is getting anything for that license," the bar owner is quoted as saying in the indictment. "This is real life; this isn't a movie, like the Sopranos, where you have to pay to do things."

A fifth man also charged with serving as a middleman, attorney Robert Ciresi, has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say the pay-to-play scheme occurred between October 2008 and May 2010, when the three then-councilmen were arrested.

In the insurance case, Zambarano is accused of conspiring with local radio host Lori Sergiacomi -- known on air as Tonya Cruise -- insurance adjuster Vincent DiPaolo and former town council President Robert Ricci to damage Sergiacomi's home and submit bogus insurance claims. Prosecutors said the insurance company paid just over $40,000 for the claim.

Zambarano faces up to 20 years in prison on the mail fraud charges.

Sergiacomi, DiPaolo and Ricci have pleaded not guilty.

Asked about Ricci's status, his lawyer, C. Leonard O'Brien, said Ricci "has not entered into a plea agreement at this time."

Lawyers for Ciresi, Sergiacomi and DiPaolo did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Prosecutors say the gambling charges against Douglas stem from an illegal sports-betting operation he ran. They say he extorted money from clients who had placed wagers with his bookmaker but failed to pay their debts.