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By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter
Jennifer Learn-Andes on Facebook   |   @TLJenLearnAndes on Twitter

At least $370,000 of the $2.6 million in kickback money that allegedly went to Luzerne County judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella was concealed by labeling it as dock expenses, marine rent, slip rental fees and other nautical-related transactions, according to the federal complaint filed against them.

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This condominium in a Jupiter, Fla., complex figured into the elaborate scheme uncovered by federal prosecutors into the investigation of the two judges.

Chris Matula/For The Times Leader

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A condominium in this Jupiter, Fla., complex figured into the elaborate scheme uncovered by federal prosecutors into the investigation of judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan. According to investigators, two unnamed individuals funneled money to the judges by falsely portraying it as rental payments and related costs.

Chris Matula/ For The Times Leader

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These particular transactions in the first five months of 2004 were made to Pinnacle Group of Jupiter LLC, a Florida business entity controlled by Conahan and Ciavarella, investigators say.

Conahan’s wife, Barbara, is listed as “managing member” of Pinnacle Group, according to Florida state records.

The checks were written by a Luzerne County lawyer identified in the complaint as “participant 1.” Investigators wouldn’t name him, but details in the complaint indirectly identify him as Robert Powell.

Here are some examples of these “falsely characterized” checks, according to the complaint: $18,000, “rent prepay;” $52,000, “rent marine prepay;” $47,000, “slip rental fees;” $78,000, “reserving lease;” $75,000, “rental Feb., Mar, Apr.;” $75,000, “lease expenses April May June;” and $25,000, “dock expenses related April May June.”

That same year, two wire transfers totaling $220,000 were also made to a Pinnacle Group-controlled bank account by Vision Holdings, a Cayman Islands company. Publicly filed mortgage documents have named Powell as president of Vision Holdings.

Powell was one of the owners of PA Child Care, which built juvenile detention/treatment centers in Pittston Township and Butler County. Investigators say Conahan and Ciavarella received the kickbacks in exchange for favorable judicial rulings and other actions that led to Luzerne County’s use of the facilities.

These weren’t the only payments funneled through Pinnacle Group, investigators said.

The Florida entity received another $1.15 million in wire transfers from Mericle Construction Inc. -- $1 million in July 2005 and $150,000 in February 2006, the complaint says.

Mericle Construction built both the PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care facilities. Robert Mericle, the construction company’s owner, is indirectly identified as “participant 2” in the federal complaint.

The complaint says participants 1 and 2 hid the $1.15 million in payments by drafting a “registration and commission agreement” to make it look as though participant 2 was paying a broker’s fee to participant 1. Instead, the money went to Pinnacle Group.

The remaining $997,600 in kickbacks identified in the complaint was also disguised with a broker’s fee agreement in 2003, investigators said.

Participant 2 wired $387,600 to a bank account controlled by participant 1 and $610,000 to an unidentified Schuylkill County attorney, the complaint says.

The $387,600 was deposited into a bank account under the control of Conahan in August 2003, the complaint says.

The Schuylkill County attorney wire transferred the $610,000 in January 2003 to a bank account of Beverage Marketing of PA, Inc., a business entity controlled by Conahan.

Conahan then wired $480,000 of this money to bank accounts controlled by Ciavarella, the complaint says. To conceal these payments, Conahan “directed that false entries be made in the books and records of Beverage Marketing, the complaint says.