BTN News: A powerful Democratic power broker in New Jersey, George Norcross III, was accused of racketeering on Monday in a milestone of the state’s politics. The indictment in turn ensnares five other people, including Norcross’ attorney, brother, and a former mayor of Camden, and shows the potential pivot point in the state’s political geography.
The news conference in Trenton took a bit of a strange turn at the beginning as New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin announced the 13-count indictment against Norcross, who was seated in the front row despite requests from Platkin’s office to move. The charges claim Norcross led a criminal enterprise that used threats and other means to ensure the development rights on the Camden waterfront then profited from tax credits issued by the state to the tune of millions of dollars.
As one example in the indictment, Norcross is alleged to have wielded his influence to force an unnamed developer to give up their waterfront property or be banished from doing any business in Camden. The developer then asks Norcross, “In other words, we have a gun to our head?”“Yup,” Amatuzzo responds.
The language in the indictment is laced with obscenities, capturing the raw spirit of New Jersey politics. One of the most vivid scenes that was described by developers was Norcross threatening to developer, “I will fck you up like you’ve never been fcked up before.
Platkin said Norcross and his allies were corrupted the revelopment and investment programs created by government. Instead of returning Camden to prosperity, the Norcross enterprise simply “copped” the entire waterfront, Platkin said.
It was another controversial year in New Jersey politics. The Democratic leaders lost a significant edge when, in March, county-line ballots, which had previously been used to help favored primary candidates, were eliminated. U.S. Senator Bob Menendez endured his second corruption trial in seven years in May. If he’s acquitted but still wants to run for re-election, Menendez has indicated that he might do so as an independent, a move that would eat into the Democratic vote for nominee Rep. Andy Kim.
Besides Norcross and his brother Philip Norcross, who heads the Parker McKay law firm, the indictment names the former Camden mayor, Dana Redd; Norcross’s attorney, Bill Tambussi; Sidney Brown, head of the NFI trucking company with which Norcross is involved, and John J. O’Donnell, a real estate developer and president of The Michaels Organization. The indictment also lists several unnamed co-conspirators.
“This claimed conduct by the Norcross enterprise has harmed countless individuals, businesses, nonprofits — and most of all the city of Camden and its residents,” Platkin claimed. “That stops today.”
The man facing charges is George Norcross, a prominent insurance executive and chairman of Cooper University Health Care, who denies the allegations and says the case is driven by political motives He said that Platkin was retaliating for an old embarrassment, and he labeled Platkin “a politician posing as an attorney general.
Since Platkin made the announcement, Norcross turned up at his publicized press conference, prompting his attorney to cite his right to show up as one by not “order of the court or code of law”. “Is there anyone more important in the indictment than the principal defendant to sit in the front row while he’s being excoriated by the attorney general of the state? the lawyer challenged.
Those charges include racketeering, official misconduct, conspiracy to commit theft, financial facilitation of criminal activity, and corporate official misconduct. They go back at least to 2012, outlining how Norcross and his friends supposedly won the day in legislation designed to spur economic growth, in particular the Economic Opportunity Act of 2013.
According to her indictment, Norcross was attempting to build an office building for no cost under the new law. Reporters poured over recordings and emails with political leaders — Governor Chris Christie, state Senate president Stephen Sweeney — and say those conversations highlight the power Norcross has exerted to carve out a “beneficial legislation,” the Inquirer and Daily News reported.
Off the top of the head, there is something like the L3 complex on the Camden waterfront. The indictment contends that Norcross allies leaned on Cooper’s Ferry Partnership, a nonprofit redevelopment organization, to unload the land at a reduced cost to a Norcross-picked developer. Cooper University Health Care, the largest customer, took a huge stake in the developer and won $27 million in state tax benefits over four years.
Afterward, the indictment states, an ally of Norcross threatened the head of Cooper’s Ferry, who resigned. This year it relaunched its nonprofit arm as Camden Community Partnership and named Redd to be its president and CEO.
The website Updated Platkin will speak at is also fresh on the heels of charges against two South Jersey Transportation Authority board members accused of using their positions to target a Norcross adversary.
The emerging legal saga of George Norcross sheds light on the expensive, byzantine and sometimes corrupt world of New Jersey politics – where power, greed and accusations of improper influence collide.
