$493,000 Finding Entered Against Defunct Firm

The city of Pittsburgh has been awarded a $493,000 judgment against a defunct Newport Beach computer company that was at the center of one of the largest public corruption cases in Pennsylvania history--a scandal that led to the grisly suicide of the state treasurer at a news conference in 1987.

Computer Technology Associates, or CTA, was an obscure computer software company that operated out of the Newport Beach home of company founder John R. Torquato Jr. Torquato was sentenced to four years in federal prison in 1984 after he admitted to masterminding an extensive scheme to bribe Pennsylvania officials to win lucrative computer contracts.

Dan Pellegrini, Pittsburgh’s city solicitor, said in a telephone interview Tuesday that the city will have to spend $50,000 to continue its case against CTA and Torquato, who filed in August for personal bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana.

Pellegrini said it is uncertain whether the city will be able to recover any of the money now that Torquato has filed for bankruptcy.

He said the city wanted to keep the case in the Pennsylvania courts but was told by the federal judge handling Torquato’s case that it will have to pursue the matter through the bankruptcy court.

“It will cost us a lot of money, and we don’t think it’s fair,” Pellegrini said. “We hope to get the money. We are pursuing this (in the Santa Ana court) as a matter of public policy.”

Torquato, who has since been released from prison and now lives in Newport Beach, could not be reached for comment.

U.S. District Judge William Standish in Pittsburgh on Monday entered the judgment against CTA and its former chief executive, Judy Ellis.

The city of Pittsburgh was seeking to recover money paid to CTA, which was hired to recover more than $40 million in overpayments of Social Security taxes by school districts and their employees.

Described as a brash, smooth-talking salesman type, Torquato testified in related trials in 1985 and 1986 that CTA obtained contracts with the state of Pennsylvania, Allegheny County, Pa., and the city of Pittsburgh in 1983 and 1984 through offers of jobs, travel and campaign contributions.

Pennsylvania Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer was found guilty in December, 1986, of bribery, mail fraud, racketeering and perjury charges.

The charges stemmed from a federal grand jury investigation that found that Dwyer had agreed to accept a $300,000 kickback in return for awarding a $4.6-million contract to CTA without putting it out to bid. No money ever changed hands and the contract was canceled.

Dwyer, who was facing a prison term of up to 55 years, called a news conference the day before his sentencing.

After reading a statement and proclaiming his innocence to a small group of reporters, photographers and aides, he pulled a pistol from a manila envelope, put it into his mouth and killed himself.