9/11 police boss to face corruption trial

The hero head of New York’s police at the time of the September 11 attacks is to face trial on corruption charges.

Bernard Kerik, once President Bush’s choice to run the national Homeland Security office, is accused of taking bribes from a Mafia-linked firm and tax evasion.

Kerik, the former New York police commissioner under Mayor Rudy Giuliani, is expected to turn himself in to police and be brought before a court today, FBI sources said.

Charges include mail and wire fraud, tax fraud, making false statements on a bank application, making false statements for a US government position and theft of honest services.

The theft charge essentially accuses a government employee of abusing his position and defrauding the public.

Prosecutors had been presenting evidence to a federal grand jury for several months, asking jurors to consider the charges.

The investigation of Kerik, 52, arose from allegations that, while a city official, he accepted 165,000 dollars in renovations to his Bronx apartment, paid for by a mob-connected building company that wanted his help in winning city contracts.

Kerik pleaded guilty last year to a misdemeanour charge in state court, admitting that the renovations constituted an illegal gift.

The plea kept him out of jail and preserved his career as a security consultant, but his troubles resurfaced when federal authorities began their own investigations into allegations that he failed to report as income tens of thousands of dollars in services from his friends and supporters.

Kerik’s performance as commissioner at the time of the September 11 attacks helped polish his already glittering career.

Before the apartment scandal broke, Mr Giuliani, now a Republican presidential candidate, endorsed Kerik’s 2004 nomination to head Homeland Security.

But only days after Mr Bush introduced Kerik as his nominee, Kerik announced he was withdrawing because of tax issues involving his former nanny.

A federal indictment of Kerik could complicate matters for Mr Giuliani as the first presidential primaries draw near.

The ex-mayor frequently says he made a mistake in recommending Kerik to be Homeland Security chief, but that might not be enough to avoid the political damage of a drawn-out criminal case involving his one-time protégé.