apparent mix-up of surnames. It was filed as part of a legal motion in a federal investigation of contractor Donald J. "Gus" Dougherty Jr. by someone who failed to note that the warrant application involved John Dougherty. Donald Dougherty is a close friend of John Dougherty, but they are not related.
The warrant application also questioned a 2003 sale in which Donald Dougherty sold a condo in North Wildwood to John Dougherty for $206,000. The sale at "below-market value" was designed to "disguise the illegal receipt of something of value by a union official," O'Hanlon said. Based on appraisal in
And, it says, Donald Dougherty told federal authorities that John Dougherty gave him $250,000 in cash, in four payments handed over in brown paper bags outside Doc's Union Pub. No one but the two of them were witnesses to the handovers, Donald Dougherty said.
The search-warrant application suggests that story was made up, that beyond the "bald assertion" of Donald Dougherty, there "is no corroborating evidence" to buttress the account of the cash and paper-bag payments.
The FBI said Donald Dougherty was by far the biggest recipient of help from a union program to subsidize union contractors facing stiff competition from nonunion firms, according to the warrant application. Between 2000 and 2005, his business received $998,000 through the Job Recovery Program, as it
In 2008, Donald Dougherty was sentenced to two years in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges that included avoiding making $1 million in required contributions to the union's employee benefits plan.
