Global Navigation
Office of The Attorney General
The State of New Jersey Office of The Attorney General (Dept. of Law & Public Safety) The State of New Jersey NJ Home Services A to Z Departments/Agencies OAG Frequently Asked Questions
Services A to Z Departments/Agencies OAG Frequently Asked Questions
OAG Home
OAG Contact
Back to News Releases
OAG Home Attorney General's Biography
Attorney General's Biography
spacer spacer spacer
 
spacer spacer spacer
spacer spacer spacer
For Immediate Release:
For Further Information:
spacer spacer spacer

March 8, 2010

Office of The Attorney General
- Paula T. Dow, Attorney General
Division of Criminal Justice
- Stephen J. Taylor, Director

Peter Aseltine
609-292-4791

spacer
spacer spacer spacer
spacer

Ex-Mayor of Irvington Michael Steele Sent to Prison for Taking Kickbacks as Business Administrator for Irvington Schools

spacer
spacer spacer spacer
spacer
Michael Steele - Click to enlarge image.
spacer
spacer spacer spacer
spacer

TRENTON - Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor announced that former Irvington Mayor Michael Steele was sentenced to state prison today for rigging school district contracts and taking thousands of dollars in kickbacks as business administrator for the Irvington Board of Education.

According to Director Taylor, Steele, 54, of Easton, Pa., was sentenced to seven years in state prison, including five years of parole ineligibility, by Superior Court Judge Stephen B. Rubin in Hunterdon County. The judge ordered that Steele pay $120,000 in restitution to the Irvington Board of Education and that he be permanently barred from public employment in New Jersey. Steele pleaded guilty on Sept. 30, 2009 to second-degree charges of official misconduct and pattern of official misconduct.

“This defendant is going to prison because by rigging contracts and taking kickbacks, he stole from the Irvington school district and the taxpayers who fund it,” said Attorney General Dow. “He had a duty as business administrator to serve the students of this struggling district as an honest steward, but instead he corruptly chose to serve himself.”

The charges were part of a June 5, 2008 state grand jury indictment that resulted from an investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau and the New Jersey State Police Official Corruption Bureau. In pleading guilty, Steele admitted that he took thousands of dollars in kickbacks on school district contracts. He retired from the district in April 2008.

Deputy Attorney General Erik Daab prosecuted the case and handled the sentencing hearing for the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau.

The state’s investigation revealed that Steele engaged in two separate bid-rigging schemes between 2003 and 2007 involving two contractors and approximately $1.4 million in contracts. The two contractors pleaded guilty in August 2008, admitting that they provided bribes to Steele in connection with the schemes. Preston Lewis, 54, of Dingmans Ferry, Pa., and William Hardy, 57, of Margate, Fla., each pleaded guilty to offering an unlawful benefit to a public servant for official behavior. Each contractor was sentenced late last year to three years of probation and a $5,000 fine. Both are barred from government contracts in New Jersey for five years.

“Fighting corruption is a top priority for the Division of Criminal Justice,” said Director Taylor. “We will aggressively investigate and prosecute any public official who unlawfully uses his or her government position for personal gain.”

The investigation was conducted and coordinated by Detective Kiersten Pentony, Detective Robyn Greene, Detective Harry Maronpot Jr., and Deputy Attorney General Daab of the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau, and Detective Sgt. Geoffrey P. Forker, Detective Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Celli III and Detective Sgt. 1st Class Thomas T. Goletz of the New Jersey State Police Official Corruption Unit. The state Department of Education assisted in the investigation.

The investigation revealed that Steele, whose annual salary was $120,000, would purchase maintenance supplies for the district - including cleaning chemicals, asphalt repair compounds and salt for melting snow - from Hardy’s maintenance supplies company, WH Chemical Group in Margate, Florida, and the company would pay Steele a “bonus” of between $5,000 and $20,000 per order. WH Chemical Group received approximately $900,000 in district contracts.

Steele would call Hardy and ask him the quantity of products he needed to buy to get a kickback in a particular amount. Steele would then order supplies in the quantities stated by Hardy, and Hardy would send the kickback to Steele. While WH Chemical Group would provide the agreed upon quantities of supplies to the district, Steele created false purchase orders that inflated the quantities. WH Chemical Company could not match the prices offered by competitors, so Steele made it appear that the company was providing more supplies to beat the other bids.

In the second scheme, Steele rigged bids to award contracts to Lewis, a Lakewood-based contractor who owned Lone Star Consulting, a construction company, and BMG Security, a security camera installation company. Steele rigged bids on at least 29 school contracts involving those companies between January 2003 and December 2007 and inflated the contract prices to build in thousands of dollars in kickbacks for himself.

Steele would contact Lewis about school district projects and instruct him to prepare a cost estimate. Steele would then tell Lewis to inflate the estimate to include a kickback and submit the inflated bid to the school district. Steele or Lewis would prepare two fraudulent competing bids for the project in higher amounts. Because Lewis’s company always had the lowest bid, the Board of Education would award his company the contract. After he completed the work and received a check from the district, Lewis would meet with Steele to provide the kickback in cash.

The Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau has established a toll-free Corruption Tipline 1-866-TIPS-4CJ. Additionally, the public can log on to the Division of Criminal Justice Web site at www.njdcj.org to report suspected wrongdoing. All information received through the Tipline or Web page will remain confidential.

###

spacer
spacer spacer spacer
spacer
 
 
Contact OAG About OAG
OAG News OAG Frequently Asked Questions
OAG Library Employment
OAG Grants Proposed Rules
OAG History OAG Services A-Z
OAG Agencies / Programs / Units
Other News Pages Otras Noticias en Español Division of NJ State Police Division of Law News Governor's Office News Division of Highway Traffic Safety News Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Juvenile Justice Commission News Division on Civil Rights News Division of Consumer Affairs News Division of Criminal Justice News Election Law Enforcement Commission Division of Gaming Enforcement News
NJ State Police News Governor's Office News Division of Highway Traffic Safety News Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Juvenile Justice Commission News Division on Civil Rights News Division of Consumer Affairs News Division of Criminal Justice News Election Law Enforcement Commission Division of Elections News Division of Gaming Enforcement News Office of Government Integrity News

free PDF plugin

NJ State Police News Governor's Office News Division of Highway Traffic Safety News Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Juvenile Justice Commission News Division on Civil Rights News Division of Consumer Affairs News Division of Criminal Justice News Election Law Enforcement Commission Division of Elections News Division of Gaming Enforcement News Office of Government Integrity News
   
Contact Us | Privacy Notice | Legal Statement | Accessibility Statement
NJ Home Logo
Departmental: OAG Home | Contact OAG | About OAG | OAG News | OAG FAQs
Statewide: NJ Home | Services A to Z | Departments/Agencies | FAQs
Copyright © State of New Jersey
This page is maintained by OAG Communications. Comments/Questions: email or call 609-292-4925
OAG Home OAG Home NJ State Police News Governor's Office News Division of Highway Traffic Safety News Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Juvenile Justice Commission News Division on Civil Rights News Division of Consumer Affairs News Division of Criminal Justice News Election Law Enforcement Commission Division of Elections News Division of Gaming Enforcement News Office of Government Integrity News