BY TALI ISRAELI
Staff Writer
Monmouth County developer Anthony Spalliero was indicted by a federal grand jury last week and charged with bribing municipal officials with cash, liquor and vacations to win development approvals and zoning changes in Marlboro.
The indictment charges Spalliero, 63, with 10 counts of offering corrupt payments to Marlboro and Monmouth County officials and four counts of mail fraud.
Joseph Spalliero, 40, the son of the developer, was indicted on one count of offering a $10,000 bribe to former Marlboro Mayor Matthew V. Scannapieco.
Each bribery charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Each mail fraud count carries a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Anthony Spalliero has been in the spotlight for years with his land deals and most recently with his arrests over the past few months. The developer was arrested in May and charged with offering corrupt payments to Scannapieco and to the director of the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders.
Harry Larrison was the freeholder director at that time. Larrison, who was waging a battle against cancer, has since died.
In September, Spalliero was charged with threatening a woman with a gun on the Brookdale Community College campus in the Lincroft section of Middletown. After spending several days in jail, he was released to a medical facility and then placed under house arrest at his daughter’s house in Hazlet.
Joseph Spalliero is not without his own controversy; he was indicted in March on two counts of bank fraud in a case which date back to 1995.
On Oct. 11, Anthony Spalliero was charged with lavishing officials with cash payments totaling $142,500; providing them with admission, entertainment and alcohol at his local nightclubs; providing a party at a hotel in Eatontown that included catering, alcohol and entertainment; limousine rides; a trip to Atlantic City; and a trip to Las Vegas for a professional boxing match.
The officials named in the indictment include Scannapieco; former Marlboro Planning Board member Stanley Young; an unnamed Marlboro Planning Board member(s); and Anthony Palughi, the former superintendent of the Division of Bridges in Monmouth County who was an aide to Larrison.
According to the indictment, Spalliero offered advice to Scannapieco on how to handle the money, including instructing the mayor not to spend the money, not to buy lavish items, not to leave large tips in restaurants, not to keep cash in his house, and how to hide or bury money using a powder that prevents rotting.
In April, Scannapieco pleaded guilty in federal court to tax evasion and to accepting $245,000 in bribes from an unnamed developer. He has not been sentenced.
Larrison was charged in May by federal authorities with accepting $8,500 in corrupt payments from two developers. The freeholder died shortly after his arrest.
Palughi pleaded guilty in federal court in August to soliciting bribe payments for Monmouth County officials. He has not been sentenced.
Young pleaded guilty in federal court in August for accepting $7,700 from two developers who conducted business in Marlboro. He has not been sentenced.
According to last week’s indictment, between 2001 and 2003, Anthony Spalliero gave Scannapieco $100,000 in exchange for the mayor’s support for his plan to build an adult community on the Route 79 Marlboro Airport property and surrounding tracts. The indictment claims Spalliero also gave an unnamed member of the Marlboro Planning Board $30,000 in exchange for that individual’s support to construct residential units on the property in question.
Developing the airport property with housing would have required the approval of the Planning Board and the Township Council. Scannapieco was a voting member of the Marlboro Planning Board at the time he was offered the bribes. The proposal to rezone the Marlboro Airport property and to construct an age-restricted development on the land was never approved by the council and Spalliero’s plan never came to fruition.
Also, according to the indictment, between 2000 and 2002, Spalliero was developing a residential project near Dutch Lane and Buckley roads in Marlboro. NJ Transit owned property in the area of the development. According to the indictment, Spalliero and his son gave Scannapieco $10,000 to persuade an unnamed elected state official to obtain an easement from NJ Transit so they could join the two pieces of the development.
In another charge, Spalliero gave $25,000 to Scannapieco between 2002 and 2003 in exchange for the mayors’ support of a land use approval and zoning change for the construction of a large retail store on Route 9 and Route 520 in Marlboro. Spalliero also offered to give money to an unnamed Planning Board member for his support of the same commercial development.
According to the indictment, between 2001 and 2002, Spalliero gave Young $2,500 in exchange for his support and approval of any proposal that Spalliero would put before the Planning Board, including the airport property and a retail store at the intersection of Route 9 and Route 520.
According to the indictment, in 2001 Spalliero agreed to give Palughi $5,000 to give to the director of the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders after Palughi contacted Spalliero on behalf of the freeholder director. The indictment states that the money was given in exchange for official assistance that the freeholder director provided to Spalliero in conjunction with development projects throughout Monmouth County.
A date for Spalliero’s arraignment on last week’s federal charges has not been scheduled, but is expected to be within the next two weeks, according to information provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark.