Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

PROVIDENCE — Ex-House majority leader Gerard M. Martineau, who pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges last fall, has begun his three-year prison sentence.

He arrived today at the federal prison at Fort Dix, N.J. -- where former Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. also served his corruption sentence.

U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Thomas Connell confirmed that Martineau reported to the prison today.

Chief Judge Mary M. Lisi on Feb. 22 sentenced Martineau to three years and one month in prison and ordered him to pay $100,000 in fines. She also ordered him to serve two years probation after completing his prison sentence.

Martineau appeared before Lisi in November and pleaded guilty to two felony charges of depriving Rhode Islanders of the right to honest services — for $891,500 worth of paper- and plastic-bag contracts from the CVS drugstore chain and Blue Cross. In return, Martineau admitted, he used his position to influence health care and other legislation to the benefit of those two companies.

Martineau is the second public official, after former Sen. John A. Celona of North Providence, to be sentenced to prison on corruption charges stemming from the four-year probe of influence-peddling at the State House.

The investigation, dubbed Operation Dollar Bill, was launched after disclosures in The Providence Journal of Celona’s hidden ties to CVS, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and Roger Williams Medical Center.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Mike Stanton

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