NorthJersey.com – Governor Corzine’s conscience was clear last week after signing a law to bring a $200 million aquarium to the Coney Island by the Meadowlands – better known as the Xanadu project.
In a footnote, buried at the bottom of a press release, Corzine said he had been assured by an ethics panel that the move posed no conflict of interest, even though the big tank could boost the bottom line of Xanadu investor, Daniel Neidich, one of Corzine’s "closest friends" and a former Goldman Sachs crony.
But Corzine’s public disclosure – New Jersey’s low hurdle of ethical absolution – may have backfired. Instead, of winning points for being a Boy Scout, Corzine may have plopped the troubled Xanadu project back into the public fishbowl for another punishing round of public scrutiny.
