Insurance Broker Center Of N.J. Bribe Scandal

The arrest of 11 public officials in New Jersey has put an insurance broker front and center in a sting operation that developed for over a year and involved thousands of dollars in bribes, according to prosecution documents.

On Sept. 6 the U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest of 11 public officials for taking bribes in exchange for placing insurance brokerage services and roofing contracts with municipal entities in Atlantic, Passaic and Essex Counties.

Key movers in the scheme were two individuals identified by the Justice Department as cooperating witnesses one and two, who met with the public officials.

The witnesses were wired and the transactions recorded where the public officials requested and received thousands of dollars in exchange for votes and influence to arrange the contracts.

The office of New Jersey U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie in Newark has refused to release any additional details about the case. A Justice Department spokesman said no additional information could be released other than what is in the documents.

However, news reports have identified the cooperating witnesses as John N. D'Angelo III, an insurance broker in Egg Harbor, N.J., and Bruce Begg, president of a roofing company in Trenton, N.J.

Mr. D'Angelo has denied any wrongdoing and is said not to be the object of the FBI's investigation. He reportedly has a letter from the U.S. Attorney's Office saying he volunteered to cooperate in the investigation.

National Underwriter was unable to reach Mr. D'Angelo.

A spokesman for the N.J. Department of Banking and Insurance said Mr. D'Angelo is a licensed broker in New Jersey. A search on the department's licensee search engine turned up an individual matching the name who is authorized to deal in life, accident, health and sickness insurance. The status of the license is listed as expired.

When asked about the legitimacy of the insurance placements by the broker, Greg Reinert of the U.S. Attorney's Office said he could not go beyond what is in the complaints. The complaints do not detail what kind of insurance was to be placed.

A call to the school district in Atlantic County where insurance business was placed was not returned.

According to documents filed in the case by the U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI set up phony companies for the transactions which began with the placement of insurance brokerage services for the Pleasantville, N.J., school district.

The companies have been identified as RSC Financial and Coastal Solutions LLC. According to the authorities, five members of the Board of Education and one resident in Pleasantville were involved in taking bribes in exchange for placing the brokerage business with the board.

Long before the arrests, Mr. D'Angelo was linked in a press report to a questionable contract placement.

The broker of record at the time, Curtis Lackland with Corporate Employee Benefits, who lost the business, along with The Atlantic City Press, sought records of the board's actions which took place in August 2006. The board was eventually sued and ended up paying more than $100,000 in legal fees and court costs, including $1,100 to Mr. Lackland.

Mr. Lackland did not return requests for comments.

Prosecutors say that members of the Pleasantville district pointed the cooperating witnesses to other officials who would be interested in bribes in exchange for the contracts. This resulted in the arrest of two state Assemblymen, the mayor of Passaic, a former city councilman, and the chief of staff of the Newark City Council.