South Jersey power broker George Norcross, allies charged in sweeping racketeering case

George E. Norcross III, the towering figure who has led South Jersey’s Democratic political machine for more than a quarter century, was charged Monday in a sweeping racketeering case alleging that he and key allies used their influence to corruptly acquire tax credits and real estate worth millions while muscling rivals out of the lucrative redevelopment of Camden’s waterfront.

Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin unveiled the 13-count indictment — which also named Norcross’ brother and Mount Laurel-based attorney Philip, their longtime lawyer William Tambussi, and former Camden Mayor Dana Redd as defendants — at a news conference in Trenton while, remarkably, Norcross, sat feet away in the front row,

Platkin accused the group — which he repeatedly referred to as the “Norcross Enterprise” — of hijacking a 2013 state tax credit program designed to encourage development in poorer communities and using it to line their own pockets instead. They maintained their control, he said, through coercion, extortion and threats.

“On full display in this indictment is how a group of unelected, private businessmen used their power and influence to get government to aid their criminal enterprise and further [their] interests,” the attorney general said, adding that their conduct allowed them to essentially take “the Camden waterfront all for themselves.”

» READ MORE: Read the full New Jersey racketeering indictment against George Norcross and his allies

Norcross, meanwhile, listened attentively from a seat that had originally been reserved for an FBI agent as Platkin outlined the 111-page indictment for a roomful of reporters. As the attorney general wrapped up his remarks and prepared to leave the room, Norcross’ lawyer, also in attendance, joined the scrum shouting questions after him.

Afterward, Norcross, 68, balked at the charges, called Platkin a “politician masquerading as an attorney general” and accused him of carrying out a yearslong political vendetta. The extraordinary scene played out just blocks from the New Jersey State House, where Norcross over the years had become accustomed to being treated as a distinguished guest by governors and lawmakers alike.

“I want to go to trial in two weeks. I want Matt Platkin to come down here and try this case himself,” Norcross said. “Because he’s a coward, because he has forced people in this building to implement his will.”

» READ MORE: As it happened: Power broker George Norcross and 5 allies indicted; accused of threatening Philly developer Carl Dranoff

That Norcross — a Camden County native, insurance executive, philanthropist, former co-owner of The Inquirer, and chair of Cooper University Health Care, a major hospital network — had found himself on the wrong end of a criminal indictment represented the latest sign of trouble for the machine-style politics that have governed New Jersey for years.

Recent months have also seen the indictment of Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and a court ruling, in March, that struck down the state’s unique ballot design that critics said had long cemented the power of candidates backed by party bosses.

“It’s often said that in New Jersey politics is a blood sport, and what’s meant by that is that if you don’t go along with the demands of those in political power, you’ll get hurt,” Platkin said at his news conference. “But there’s nothing inherent in our state’s culture that requires us to accept politics and government that functions this way. And as we so clearly [say] in this indictment, there’s nothing legal about it either.”

Despite never having held elected office himself, Norcross built the South Jersey Democratic machine into a juggernaut over the last 20 years — one that has propelled key allies into all levels of politics and government from city councils and local party committees to government agencies and the state legislature. His backing helped win his brother Donald Norcross a seat in Congress in 2013 and, in 2009, install his childhood friend, former state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, into that leadership role.

And while state and federal authorities have repeatedly scrutinized Norcross’ business dealings over the last two decades — tapping his phones and sending informants to record his conversations — none of those earlier investigations had ever resulted in charges.

» READ MORE: Who is George Norcross? A look at the indicted South Jersey power broker

Monday’s indictment came after a yearslong investigation and just days after Platkin’s office announced separate charges against two Norcross allies on the board of the South Jersey Transportation Authority accused of abusing their positions to exact revenge against one of his political rivals. Though Norcross was referenced in charging documents in that case as a “South Jersey Democratic Party Leader,” that indictment did not identify him by name, accuse him of any wrongdoing, or charge him with a crime.

The case unveiled Monday, however, means that Norcross will now face the threat of prison, if he is convicted, and a messy court battle that could tarnish both his legacy and the narrative he has built around himself as a white knight bringing back Camden from decades of poverty and financial disinvestment.

Specifically, the indictment focused on Norcross’ role in a handful of real estate deals on the Camden waterfront during a development boom set off by the state’s implementation of a 2013 tax credit program.

» READ MORE: N.J. AG corruption investigation focuses on George Norcross’ influence over Camden waterfront developments, sources say

Prosecutors say that Norcross and his brother Philip helped shape the legislation that created the program and sought to tailor it to their benefit. In a meeting, Norcross told a group of allies the tax legislation was “for our friends,” according to the indictment.

After that legislation passed, the indictment says, Philip Norcross boasted to others “we rewrote a tax credit law in New Jersey.” And, as prosecutors described it Monday, the brothers quickly got to work extorting and coercing others to acquire land and property rights on or near the waterfront.

When George Norcross learned that a nonprofit redevelopment organization then known as Cooper’s Ferry Partnership was seeking to buy two office buildings in Camden known as the L3 complex, his associates forced the nonprofit to partner with Norcross’ preferred developer and ultimately sell its rights to the property, according to the indictment.

» READ MORE: New Jersey tax credits turned a Camden office complex into a lucrative investment. Now the feds and state AG are investigating

Camden Mayor Dana L. Redd’s office allegedly instructed the nonprofit in 2013 to meet regularly with Philip Norcross, who “implied” that if the nonprofit didn’t use Norcross’s preferred developer — investor Ira Lubert and commercial landlord Howard Needleman — it would “suffer repercussions,” the indictment says.

Ultimately, prosecutors said, Cooper’s Ferry’s then-CEO — Anthony Perno — reluctantly agreed to partner with Lubert and Needleman in the purchase, after learning that his job was in jeopardy if he refused.

In December 2014 the nonprofit received a net of $125,000 for its rights, far less than the millions it had expected to earn from the transaction and in future profit-sharing. Lubert and Needleman, meanwhile, were able to buy the property at a steep discount — for $20 million less than its appraised value — as a result of a deal Cooper’s Ferry had locked in with the state Economic Development Authority before the passage of the tax incentive legislation, prosecutors said.

With Cooper’s Ferry out of the picture, Cooper Health — whose board chairman was George Norcross — gained an ownership stake in the L3 complex. The hospital later obtained more than $27 million in tax credits from the state and moved into its own building as a tenant.

Years after that real estate deal, the indictment says, Norcross and his allies used threats of economic and reputational harm to force Perno to resign as chief executive of Cooper’s Ferry. That helped Redd, Camden’s outgoing mayor, land a new job, the indictment says.

But, in prosecutors’ telling, that alleged extortion scheme was just the beginning.

Norcross and his allies quickly turned their attention to developing a planned office tower known as Triad1828, which now serves as the headquarters to Norcross’ insurance brokerage and offices for two business partners, trucking and logistics company NFI and The Michaels Organization, a residential real estate firm.

(Two top executives for those companies — Sidney R. Brown, chief executive of NFI, and John J. O’Donnell, of Michaels — were also indicted Monday. It was not clear whether they had retained lawyers.)

But despite Norcross’ plans to erect the Triad office tower, Philadelphia developer Carl Dranoff controlled property rights that affected his ability to proceed.

Dranoff initially balked at Norcross’ terms for buying those rights in the summer of 2016 — a business proposal he likened in a later lawsuit to “a shakedown.” Norcross, in an exchange quoted in court filings Monday, told Dranoff he would “f — you up like you’ve never been f — up before,” adding he would make sure the developer never did business in Camden again.

“If I walked away, it would be a …. bad thing for the city,” Norcross allegedly said in a recorded phone call a few months later with William Hankowsky, CEO of Liberty Property Trust, a partner in Norcross’ proposed development deal. “It would be humiliating for me, obviously, if we were to walk away. That’s why I’m so irritated by [Dranoff’s] crap.”

With Norcross frustrated by the lack of progress, prosecutors said, he and his allies hatched a scheme to ratchet up the pressure on the Dranoff: they’d use the Camden Redevelopment Agency, a client of Tambussi’s law firm, to condemn Dranoff’s property rights. The CRA ultimately did not take this planned court action amid pushback from Liberty, which instead agreed to chip in more money to Dranoff to extinguish the property rights.

As a result of these and other actions, the indictment says, Dranoff in 2016 sold the rights to $18 million worth of tax credits to “an entity owned by Norcross Enterprise members and associates.” The developer also sold and extinguished other rights — for a price below what he believed they were worth — allowing Norcross’ insurance brokerage and other entities to apply for more tax credits. They were approved for more than $240 million in tax credits and started receiving and selling them in 2022, according to prosecutors.

But prosecutors said Monday that Norcross wasn’t content with that victory. Starting in 2018, he allegedly leaned on his allies in Camden City government to block Dranoff’s attempted sale of a luxury apartment complex known as The Victor Building.

The city also moved to terminate Dranoff’s rights to develop another site, prompting years of litigation, which concluded last fall in a settlement under which Dranoff agreed to pay the city $3 million plus additional tax payments of $300,000.

“The alleged conduct of the Norcross Enterprise has caused great harm to individuals, businesses, nonprofits, the people of the State of New Jersey, and especially the City of Camden and its residents,” Platkin said Monday. “That stops today.”

Despite the seriousness of the allegations lodged against Norcross Monday his attorney Michael Critchley predicted that his client would ultimately be acquitted at trial.

After all, he and members of Norcross’ camp stressed, this wasn’t the first time many of the real estate deals at issue had received public scrutiny, and it wasn’t Norcross’ first run-in with Platkin.

In 2019, a task force Platkin helped to create during his stint as chief counsel to Gov. Phil Murphy found companies with ties to political insiders, including Norcross, may have made false representations to win tax credits from the state Economic Development Authority.

The task force questioned the propriety of several credits awarded to companies including Norcross’ insurance brokerage and Cooper Health.

At the time, Norcross dismissed it as a political hit job. Conner Strong and its business partners received their first installment of tax breaks in 2022. And for all the headlines generated by the task force’s work, its efforts to rescind millions of dollars in tax credits have been shot down in court.

Kevin Marino, attorney for Philip Norcross, predicted that with Monday’s indictment Platkin — now in a new role as attorney general — would once again come up short.

“Mr. Platkin,” he said, “is going to find out in this case, what it really means to have those who really are in power to be held to account.”