Zaccaro Pleads Guilty in Fraud Case : Ferraro’s Husband Gets Guarantee He Won’t Go to Prison

John Zaccaro, the husband of former Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine A. Ferraro, pleaded guilty today to a misdemeanor charge of fraud in a $15.5-million real estate deal.

In a statement released by his lawyers, Zaccaro said he hoped the plea would end “the inquiries and the microscopic attention” given to his business affairs. He said he entered the plea in order to spare his family further publicity.

Zaccaro’s guilty plea was the result of a plea bargain that included a guarantee that he would not be sentenced to prison, state Supreme Court Justice George Roberts said in court.

He could have been sentenced to a maximum of one year in prison and a $500,000 fine. He will be sentenced Feb. 20, Roberts said.

Zaccaro, 51, was arrested and charged along with Harold Farrell, 63, of Queens with fraudulently obtaining finances for John G. DeLorenzo, a Manhattan real estate investor, for the purchase of five Queens apartment buildings.

Overstated Net Worth

The indictment, issued by a grand jury in Manhattan, charged that Zaccaro and Farrell inflated the value of the apartment buildings to a New Jersey mortgage broker and altered the broker’s appraisal to Prudential-Bache Securities.

Zaccaro also overstated his net worth by more than $17 million to help secure the loan, the indictment said.

In 1983, Zaccaro and two associates applied to Prudential-Bache for $15.5 million in financing to purchase the five Queens apartment buildings, which actually cost $11.9 million.

Zaccaro and Farrell were charged with second-degree scheming to defraud, a misdemeanor.

At the arraignment Zaccaro, looking tanned and stoned-faced, listened as the judge read the part of the indictment accusing him of inflating his net worth. Roberts then asked him if the facts he had read were true.

“Yes, sir--the items that you read,” Zaccaro said.

He also told the judge that the deal never went through.

Stood to Make $333,000

Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert M. Morgenthau said Zaccaro stood to make a $333,000 sales commission in addition to an 8% share in the buildings, which are located on Yellowstone Boulevard in Queens.

Ferraro and other members of the family were not in the courtroom when Zaccaro pleaded guilty.

A Ferraro aide released a statement in which the former congresswoman said Zaccaro “has freely admitted his mistake, and for this I am proud of him. John is a decent, honorable man, and today’s events do nothing to change him in the eyes of his family and friends. We love him very much.”

Zaccaro left through a side door without speaking to the press.

Questions about Zaccaro’s finances had dogged his wife’s campaign. She complained that her own campaign themes did not reach the people because of the attention paid to her husband’s alleged improprieties and to what part she had in family finances.