Record Promoter Is the First Convicted Under Payola Law

An independent record promoter who admitted that he gave out cash and cocaine to get his records played became the first promoter ever to be convicted under a 29-year-old payola statute.

In a significant boost to the Justice Department’s wide-ranging investigation of payola in the record industry, Ralph Tashjian pleaded guilty Monday to one misdemeanor payola charge and two felony tax and obstruction of justice counts stemming from the hidden payments.

Tashjian, 41, is now expected to testify against a variety of former business associates who, investigators say, funneled large amounts of money to radio station program directors around the country--and led to virtual control over some radio stations’ play lists.

Sent Cocaine to Station

He admitted sending a Federal Express package of cocaine to an employee of Fresno radio station KMGX in a disguised attempt to get him to add the records he was promoting, including those of Laura Branigan, Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen, to the station’s play list.

In another development, the Justice Department has reportedly launched an informal internal inquiry into allegations that one of the prosecutors in the case, Martin J. Weinstein, deliberately withheld information from a federal judge about an earlier plea agreement with Tashjian and his wife, Valerie.

U.S. District Judge Pamela Ann Rymer last week dismissed an indictment against Valerie Tashjian based on what she said was the government’s “flagrant attempt” to interfere with Rymer’s ability to determine whether the guilty plea was voluntary.

After Valerie Tashjian broke into tears during her plea and claimed that she was being coerced by the threat of additional charges against her husband, her attorney alleged that Weinstein had refused to include language in the plea agreement that the government would not allow Ralph Tashjian to plead guilty to reduced charges unless his wife pleaded guilty as well.

Prosecutors Respond

Weinstein and co-prosecutor Richard A. Stavin, who defense lawyers said was not involved in the alleged subterfuge, responded in court papers that there was no attempt to hide the package nature of the pleas, which government lawyers assumed was “self-evident and obvious.”

Moreover, government prosecutors said the legal maneuvers by the defense, if allowed to proceed, would permit Ralph Tashjian to try to exonerate his wife by testifying for her at trial. His testimony would have to be discredited by the government, and he would be rendered useless as a witness in future payola cases, the government argued.

John Newcomer, head of the Justice Department’s Organized Crime Strike Force in Los Angeles, refused to comment on the issue but said prosecutors believe Valerie Tashjian is still under indictment, despite the judge’s dismissal last week.

The judge dismissed only a superseding indictment in the case, and the government believes the original indictment against her on false tax reporting charges still is pending, Newcomer said.

Defense lawyer David Kenner said he believes the judge’s ruling dismissed all outstanding criminal charges in the case.

Charges Identical

The charges to which Ralph Tashjian entered a guilty plea are identical to those to which he originally sought to plead guilty when his wife’s outburst scuttled the pleas.

Tashjian was promoting the records on behalf of well-known record promoter Joseph Isgro, Stavin told the court. Isgro is reportedly one of the major focuses of the ongoing payola investigation. He has denied knowing of any payola payments made by subcontractors like Tashjian.

False Receipts

Stavin said investigators also found restaurant receipts and expense vouchers from Tashjian’s business that had been tampered with in an attempt to disguise the payola payments through false expense receipts.

Tashjian also admitted subscribing to a false tax return that under-reported his corporate earnings for the 1985 fiscal year by $233,923.

He faces a maximum of nine years in prison and a $265,000 fine when he is sentenced July 31.