George E. Norcross III, a Democratic strongman with statewide influence and long feared by many, was indicted Monday on wide-ranging criminal corruption charges along with one of his brothers, his personal attorney, the former Camden mayor and two others on activities that involved granting millions of dollars in tax credits in the state’s poorest city and then using those funds to close millions of dollars in lucrative real estate deals.
Authorities said the 12-year scheme resulted in real estate and property rights on Camden’s waterfront being acquired through illegal means.
The state indictment was unsealed in Trenton just after 1 p.m. and announced by Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin.
Norcross and others allegedly acquired real estate and property rights on the Camden Waterfront and controlled or influenced government officials to advance their plans, while collecting millions of dollars in government-issued tax credits.
Norcross serves as chairman of the board of directors of insurance company Conner, Strong & Bucklew and chairman of the board of directors of Cooper Health.
Those charged in Norcross are:
- Philip A. Norcross, 61, of Philadelphia, is an attorney and managing shareholder and CEO of the New Jersey law firm Parker McKay.
- William M. Tambussi, 66, of Brigantine, New Jersey, is an attorney and partner with the law firm of Brown & Connelly. He was the personal attorney for George Norcross for many years and served as counsel to the Camden County Democratic Committee, which George Norcross served as chairman from 1989 to 1995. He also served as outside counsel to the City of Camden, the Camden Redevelopment Authority, Cooper Health and Connor Strong.
- Dana L. Redd, 56, of Sicklerville, is currently CEO of the Camden Community Partnership (formerly the Coopers Ferry Partnership) and was previously mayor of Camden.
Also indicted were Sidney Brown, CEO of NFI, a trucking and logistics company that profited from the development contracts, and John J. O’Donnell of the Michaels Organization, a housing developer. Mr. O’Donnell was a partner in a group that owns some of the Camden buildings at the center of the allegations.
All six defendants are charged with first-degree organized crime, which, if convicted, carries a maximum sentence of several years in state prison and a maximum fine of $200,000.
The charges come just days after two South Jersey Transportation Authority employees were indicted Friday in an alleged political retaliation scheme to withhold payments from an engineering firm whose executives ran afoul of Norcross.
According to the complaint in the case, SJTA board vice president and authority vice chair Christopher Milam, 45, of Sewell, and Brian Bush, 52, also of Sewell, were charged with official misconduct, conspiracy to commit official misconduct and perjury.
Norcross is not named in the complaint and has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the case.
The investigation that led to Monday’s indictments grew out of a lengthy investigation into the state’s economic development incentives, which were the subject of the governor’s special task force. The committee, appointed by Gov. Phil Murphy in 2019 following a highly critical report by the state comptroller, concluded that the state Economic Development Agency may have “improperly awarded, miscalculated, overvalued and overpaid” many companies involving literally billions of dollars in state funds.
Norcross is a key figure in the probe, with investigators accusing him of secretly rewriting legislation meant to spur new construction and jobs to help him profit from the program.
The task force later released documents revealing that amendments to the tax break bill were drafted by Kevin Sheehan, a real estate lawyer at Parker McKay, a law firm whose chief executive is Norcross’s brother, Philip Norcross. The task force said the changes would benefit insiders, including Norcross’s interests in Camden, including his insurance company and Cooper University Healthcare, where Norcross serves as board chairman.
Mr. Norcross denied any wrongdoing. The dispute over the economic incentives quickly devolved into an ugly personal feud with Mr. Murphy, who publicly fought back against accusations of wrongdoing, calling him a “liar” and “politically inept,” and slamming the governor and the task force.
Later, at the Senate Select Committee on Economic Growth and Strategies in Trenton, Norcross defiantly defended his role in the city’s development efforts, arguing that he had been “personally and unfairly” targeted by the task force and that without the tax incentive program, “nothing would have happened in Camden.”
“We did everything in our power to bring businesses to the most dangerous city in America and the poorest city,” he told NJ Advance Media as controversy swirled over his role in Camden. “As long as they followed the law, what’s wrong with that?”
But some of the task force’s findings were later sent to authorities for a criminal investigation, and that same year a state grand jury issued subpoenas to the state Department of Economic Development in connection with the incentive program. And last year, as first reported by NJ Advance Media, the city of Camden and a major nonprofit working on the redevelopment received a flurry of subpoenas related to the investigation that led to Monday’s indictments.
Many of the records sought in the subpoenas related to companies, individuals and transactions with public ties to Norcross.
The indictment against the 68-year-old gray-haired political boss, a deep-pocketed fundraiser who has never run for office but has played an outsized role in deciding the fate of those who have, is likely to send shock waves through the state’s political circles.
Norcross had been a major player in New Jersey politics for decades, with unquestioned political power and a well-functioning political machine that could swing elections from local mayoral races and state legislatures to governorship and the U.S. Congress. Elected officials from his home base in Camden to counties far north had built their careers on the power and money Norcross wielded to get them elected. He controlled a core group of legislators, controlled leadership of the state legislature, and, thanks to his close relationship with former Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), had the power to make or break any bill, as the Tax Credit Program Task Force later claimed.
At the same time, his connections enabled his insurance brokerage, Connor, Strong & Bucklew, to secure large, profitable contracts from municipalities, counties and public agencies throughout New Jersey.
Norcross has not been shy about using his power. As documented in a series of secretly recorded conversations, he once pressured a local council member, who he did not know was cooperating with prosecutors at the time, to sabotage a political opponent, bragging in vulgar, ruthless and blunt terms about how unfair the game was. He had, in effect, made it clear to the council member that he was in charge.
“I don’t mean to say this to insult you guys, but at the end of the day, the McGreeveys, the Corzine family, they’re all going to be on my side,” Norcross is heard on the tape saying, referring to Gov. James E. McGreevey and Jon Corzine, who had just been elected to the U.S. Senate at the time.
“It’s not because they like me,” Norcross says, “it’s because they have no choice.”
That investigation, more than 20 years ago, ended without any charges being filed.
This is an ongoing story
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