Originally appeared in the Trentonian on Thursday, March 29, 2001.
By LISA MEYER

Acting State Treasurer Isabel Miranda resigned yesterday after failing to disprove charges she had used company money to fund a love affair.

Miranda said her nomination "has fallen victim to a vicious and unfair effort to discredit me.''

The Scotch Plains banker had refused to authorize the release of information in her defense, such asexpense reports and her termination agreement with Citibank. This led to other questions surrounding her fitness as the state's chief bursar.

Miranda became a focus of controversy after The New York Times said she had been fired by Citibank five years ago for misusing expense accounts to carry on an extramarital affair.

More concerns arose about Miranda's fitness as state treasurer, lording over all state finances, while she remained affiliated with U.S. Trust Company of New Jersey. The company competes for business handling government bonds.

It is this latter issue Miranda cited in her resignation letter yesterday. Miranda had agreed to take a leave of absence from U.S. Trust and to further recuse herself from any state decisions involving that firm, but she was unwilling to resign outright to take a state job that might last less than a year.

"I also now believe recusal is not sufficient to cure any perceived conflict I would have as a result of my leave of absence,'' Miranda said in her letter.

Acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco said he was disappointed his neighbor, a family friend, withdrew her name as he praised her "as a person of enormous character and integrity.''

Sen. William Gormley, R-Atlantic, the Judiciary chairman, and the ranking Democrat Sen. John A. Lynch, D-Middlesex, said they were given unprecedented access to Miranda's confidential background investigation. New Jersey State Police detectives had renewed their inquiry Monday into the terms of Miranda's departure from Citibank.

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