Trenton NJ, Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) today announced the filing of criminal charges against six defendants following a years-long investigation into a criminal enterprise run by George E. Norcross III and his associates in South Jersey and elsewhere. The thirteen-count indictment unsealed today alleges that through a series of unlawful acts, the Norcross Enterprise obtained property and property rights on the Camden Waterfront for itself and others, collected millions of dollars in government-issued tax credits, and controlled and influenced government officials to further the interests of the enterprise.
Trenton NJ, Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) today announced criminal charges have been filed against two members of the South Jersey Transportation Authority (SJTA) Board of Commissioners, after they allegedly colluded to block payments to an engineering firm as political retaliation in connection with a feud between a South Jersey Democratic Party leader and a Mercer County Commissioner.
Franklin Lakes NJ, The ex-husband of one of the stars of the Bravo television show “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” and an organized crime soldier were arrested today on charges of planning and carrying out an assault of the Bravo star’s current husband in exchange for a lavish wedding reception, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.
DECEMBER 4, 2015, 11:47 AM LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2015, 6:16 PM
BY PETER J. SAMPSON
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Sobbing as he pleaded for mercy and insisted he did nothing wrong, Joseph A. Ferriero, the once powerful leader of the Bergen County Democratic Party, was sentenced Friday to nearly three years in prison for using his political clout to profit from a kickback scheme involving government contracts.
“I understand the court has to accept the verdict,” Ferriero said, adding, “Not for a nanosecond did I think I was doing anything wrong.”
In retrospect, he said, he should have done things differently, but he insisted he never solicited bribes or accepted kickbacks.
U.S. District Judge Esther B. Salas imposed a 35-month prison term on the 58-year-old Hackensack lawyer during a two-hour hearing in federal court in Newark. She said he can self-surrender to prison authorities within 60 days.
Ferriero, who earlier this week lost a bid to set aside his conviction, is planning an appeal.
OCTOBER 5, 2015 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015, 9:42 PM
BY HUGH R. MORLEY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
A federal lawsuit filed against David Kushner, the prominent Cresskill businessman charged with stalking and harassing his son’s basketball coach, accuses him and others of racketeering and conspiring to defraud investors in a mortgage business.
An attorney representing Kushner and others named in the suit dismissed the allegations Monday as “utterly without merit.”
The suit, filed by a Suffolk County, N.Y., investor, claims that Kushner, several businesses of which he is part-owner, and two other owners engaged in “a widespread criminal enterprise” and a “pattern of racketeering activity” in a business that solicited investments to be lent as mortgages.
The investor, Arnold Rosenshein, says in the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that he invested just over $4 million with the Kushner companies after he was assured that the deals would be “conservative” and short term, and that his money would be just a small part of the mortgage granted. Rosenshein also said he was told that in the event of a default, the properties would be foreclosed upon and sold at a profit.
But several of the mortgages soon went into default, and the properties remained unforeclosed upon for years, because company executives wanted to wait until the property gained in value, Rosenshein alleges. Meanwhile, Kushner and two other company principals, Jeffrey Meshel and Wayne Sturdman, both of New York, made millions from the loans by taking “origination” and “servicing” fees, the suit alleges.
Ferriero racketeering trial: Wood-Ridge Mayor Paul Sarlo testifies
March 20, 2015, 12:48 PM Last updated: Friday, March 20, 2015, 9:39 PM
By JOHN BRENNAN and and JOHN C. ENSSLIN
Staff Writers |
The Record
The federal racketeering trial of former Bergen County Democratic leader Joseph A. Ferriero took a dramatic turn Friday when state Sen. Paul Sarlo, one of the most powerful Democratic lawmakers in North Jersey, testified that Ferriero “pushed hard” to persuade Wood-Ridge officials to hire a software company without disclosing that he stood to profit from the deal.
Sarlo, who is also the mayor of Wood-Ridge, said the town’s decision in 2007 not to hire the company, called C3, led to a confrontation during a political golf outing the next year.
“I don’t think they were happy with my response — it got tense,” Sarlo said of Ferriero and John Carrino, the owner of C3, a Nutley-based firm that helped towns with municipal websites and reverse 911 systems.
Once voices were raised, Sarlo said, his chief of staff, Chris Eilert, “intervened to make sure it didn’t go any further” by guiding Sarlo away from the other two men.
Sarlo’s testimony came in U.S. District Court in Newark, where Ferriero, 57, of Hackensack, is on trial on charges of using his position as party chairman in a series of extortion, bribery and kickback schemes. He has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing and has accused the prosecutors of unfairly targeting him.
