Former CEO of Birdsall Engineering and 6 Others Indicted For 'Pay-to-Play'

I'm a little late on this but it's worth noting that Howard Birdsall was the Chairman of the Brookdale Community College Board of Trustees when College President Peter Burnham, was charged and subsequently sent to prison for 5 years on Theft by Deception and Official Misconduct charges. I haven't seen this little fact mentioned in any of the stories circulating since the news about this pay-to-play scheme came to light.

Here's the press release issued by the State Attorney General's Office:

TRENTON – Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa announced that Howard C. Birdsall, the largest shareholder and former CEO of Birdsall Services Group, a large Monmouth County-based engineering firm, was indicted today along with the firm and six other executives and shareholders on charges that they conspired in a scheme to avoid the restrictions of New Jersey’s Pay-to-Play Act by disguising illegal corporate political contributions as personal contributions of employees of the firm.

Under the scheme, instead of Birdsall Services Group making corporate political contributions to campaigns and political organizations that would disqualify it from public contracts awarded by certain government agencies, shareholders and employees of the firm allegedly made personal political contributions of $300 or less, which are deemed unreportable. Multiple personal checks were bundled together at BSG and sent to the appropriate campaign or political organization. It is alleged that the shareholders and employees were then illegally reimbursed by Birdsall, directly or indirectly, through added bonus payments, and the firm falsely omitted the illegally reimbursed contributions in documents filed with the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) and with government agencies that awarded the firm engineering services contracts. The scheme allegedly continued for more than six years and involved hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions.

All of the defendants face first-degree counts of conspiracy and money laundering, as well as other charges. The first-degree charges carry a sentence of 10 to 20 years in state prison, and the money laundering counts also carry fines and penalties of up to $1 million. Two employees of the marketing department of Birdsall previously pleaded guilty to participating in the scheme.

“These men allegedly participated in a corrupt scheme in which they made hundreds of thousands of dollars in corporate political contributions, but disguised them as individual contributions to evade our pay-to-play law,” said Attorney General Chiesa. “The defendants secured millions of dollars in public contracts for which they should have been disqualified. We have rules to prevent politically connected firms from stacking the deck in their favor in public contracting, but these defendants allegedly broke those rules and committed serious crimes.”

“New Jersey’s pay-to-play law seeks to ensure fair and open public contracting, free of the sway of political interests,” said Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice. “As this indictment demonstrates, we will bring serious charges against anyone who engages in criminal conduct to skirt that important law.”

The Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau today obtained a nine-count state grand jury indictment charging Birdsall Services Group, which is headquartered in Eatontown, and the following individual defendants:

1. Howard C. Birdsall, 69, of Brielle, the largest shareholder of Birdsall, who retired late last year as CEO. He allegedly made at least $49,808 in illegally reimbursed political contributions.
2. Thomas Rospos, 61, of Belmar, a former Executive Vice President of Birdsall. Rospos was charged in a prior indictment in the case, but this indictment supersedes the earlier one. He allegedly made at least $241,000 in illegally reimbursed political contributions.
3. William Birdsall, 64, of Manchester, Howard’s brother. He holds the title of Senior Vice President and is a significant shareholder of the firm. He is semi-retired. He allegedly made at least $74,459 in illegally reimbursed political contributions.
4. Alan Hilla Sr., 73, of Brielle. He is Executive Vice President for Business Development for Birdsall and a significant shareholder of Birdsall. He is also semi-retired. He allegedly made at least $148,309 in illegally reimbursed political contributions.
5. Scott MacFadden, 58, of Brick, Chief Administrative Officer of Birdsall. He allegedly made at least $77,957 in illegally reimbursed political contributions.
6. James Johnston, 51, of North Brunswick. He is President of the Environmental Consulting Division of Birdsall and a significant shareholder. He allegedly made at least $45,797 in illegally reimbursed political contributions.
7. Robert Gerard, 52, of Wall. He is the former Chief Marketing Officer of Birdsall and was formerly a significant shareholder. He allegedly made at least $48,700 in illegally reimbursed political contributions.

The amounts listed for illegal contributions by the defendants are approximate figures based on the investigation to date. The investigation is ongoing.

Each of the defendants is charged with conspiracy (1st degree), two counts of money laundering (1st degree), making false representations for government contracts (2nd degree), misconduct by a corporate official (2nd degree), tampering with public records or information (3rd degree), falsifying records (4th degree), prohibited corporation contributions through employees (4th degree), and concealment or misrepresentation of contributions or expenditures (4th degree).

The charges stem from an investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau. Deputy Attorney General Anthony A. Picione, Deputy Chief of the Corruption Bureau, and Deputy Attorney General Victor Salgado presented the case to the state grand jury and took the prior guilty pleas. Detectives Kiersten Pentony, Edward Augustyn, Janine Buchalski and Melissa Calkin have been the lead detectives.

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