New York ? A federal grand jury has indicted Bernard Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner under former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, on corruption charges, a person close to the investigation said Thursday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the indictment was sealed and wasn’t expected to be unsealed until Kerik’s arraignment today.

The charges include mail and wire fraud, tax fraud, making false statements on a bank application, making false statements for a U.S. government position and theft of honest services, the person said.

The theft charge essentially accuses a government employee of defrauding the public by depriving it of the honest service expected of him.

Several calls to Kerik’s attorney, Kenneth Breen, were not immediately returned.

Authorities have alleged that Kerik took tens of thousands of dollars in services from benefactors and never reported it as income. Earlier this year, he rejected a plea deal, and his attorney insisted he had done nothing wrong.

An indictment is the latest chapter of a downfall that began within days of Kerik’s nomination in 2004 to lead the Department of Homeland Security. At the time, he was billed by the former mayor as a no-nonsense, self-made lawman who helped restore calm following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

A federal indictment of Kerik could complicate matters for Giuliani as the first presidential primaries draw near.

The ex-mayor frequently says that he made a mistake in recommending Kerik to be Homeland Security chief, but that might not be enough to avoid the political damage of a drawn-out criminal case involving his one-time protege.

His nomination was confronted with news reports about stock-option windfalls, his connections with people suspected of doing business with the mob and overlapping extramarital affairs with two women: Judith Regan, the publisher of his memoir, and a city correction officer. The liaisons reportedly occurred in an apartment near ground zero that had been set aside for rescue workers.

Kerik, 51, who married his current wife in 1998 and has two children with her, apparently became close with Regan while writing “The Lost Son,” in which he described being abandoned by his prostitute mother.

Kerik rose from cop to Giuliani’s correction commissioner in the late 1990s. From there, he became police commissioner and later went to work in Iraq rebuilding the country’s police force.

Then came the failed Homeland Security nomination. Democrats who opposed the nomination focused on Kerik’s windfall from exercising stock options in a stun-gun company that did business with the department. His take: $6.2 million.

Days after President Bush introduced Kerik as his nominee, Kerik announced he was withdrawing his name because of tax issues involving his former nanny. But by then, state investigators were already aware of the expensive renovations done to his Bronx apartment in 1999, including built-in cabinets and a rotunda with a marble entryway. They alleged the work was paid for by Mafia-connected builders who sought his help winning city contracts.

Giuliani was forced to testify before a state grand jury in a case that resulted in Kerik pleading guilty last year to accepting illegal gifts while on the city payroll. The plea spared Kerik jail time and preserved his new career as a security consultant, but his name was quietly removed from a downtown jail named in his honor.

The state case isn’t over: Two brothers who run the construction firm have pleaded not guilty to charges they lied to the grand jury about their relationship with Kerik.