The DOJ recently issued a press release announcing that it is indicting, for the second time, former ANC Commissioner Robert J. Hall Jr. Mr. Hall has been indicted, along with two co-conspirators, for conspiracy, fraud, & money laundering. The charges stem from activities surrounding a ponzi style development scheme that Mr. Hall allegedly engaged in for a two-three year period (Hall already faces mail, wire, & securities fraud charges for those activities). Hall's alleged co-conspirators in this new indictment are Anthony Rivera (37 & of Washington, DC), & Thomas Alston (28 & of Largo Maryland). Under these new indictments, each defendant could face up to 50 years in prison (if I remember correctly, Hall faces up to thirty years under the first indictment). Just as a side note, there is a local ANC Commissioner by the name of Anthony Rivera, but I have no idea if he is the Anthony Rivera referred to in the indictment (that Mr. Rivera is only identified as an "aquaintance" of Mr. Hall).
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UPDATE (hence the post title change)
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I have confirmation that the indicted Anthony Rivera is indeed the ANC Commissioner for ANC6C SMD05. For a photo of (and additional info on) Mr. Rivera, check out ANC6C's website
9 comments:
Can we have a recall?
Recall rules are here.
It's astonishing that no one in Mr. Rivera's district have a reaction to his indictment!! Anyone? Does anyone want to have a diablog about this? Does anyone care?! Should we care?
Last time I checked, indictment does not equal conviction. Remember, innocent until proven guilty and all that mumbo jumbo?? I think we should allow due process to run its course before jumping to conclusions and calling for the guy's head.
I spoke this morning with my Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (6C05) Anthony Rivera, with whom our community has worked on the ongoing noise issue at H and 8th Streets NE. We also discussed his indictment on Saturday by a federal grand jury on conspiracy, fraud and money laundering charges. He said he's going to fight all charges and continue as ANC6C commissioner. Read more on my blog, Quest for Quiet…
Re: 8:55AM Anonymous--you can bet that many people in Mr. Rivera's district are very upset about this latest turn of events! Outrageous behavior (if true), with apparently quite a paper trail. We already went through this with Mr. Hall--left with no ANC representative because he didn't step down until too close to the election. Mr. Rivera has already been rather ineffective as a commissioner (he was removed as Chair of the Zoning Committee by unanimous ANC vote).
As I remember it Mr. Hall was voted in as the Chairman two years in a row and was well respected on the commission for his work. I don't think that he was ever accused of misappropriating public money and I know that he had some great initial support in a bid for the ward 6 council seat. I think this is all pretty unfortunate and frankly a little weird that two consecutive commissioners fom the same seat would go through something like this and I find it hard to believe that a guy who was twice elected by the commissioners who were elected by the people as the leader of the ANC could have been committing all of these crimes at the same time. Are we all that blind?
I am not a big fan or opponent of either guy but I do believe that everyone in this country is considered innocent until proven guilty. Period.
Two things--
1. I highly doubt that the DOJ has some hidden agenda to bring down successive ANC Commissioners from 6C05--they happen to know eachother, and allegedly (not yet proven) consipired to commit fraud.
2. As far as continuing as Commissioner, it is less a question of guilt/innocence--rather it is can Mr. Rivera be an effective representative of our area? On the latter question, I think "no"--and as urged by VOH, he should step down.
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