Company’s Owner also Barred for 10 Years; Successor Company to Be Monitored for a Decade

TRENTON — Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) today announced that a Paterson school bus company pleaded guilty to a second-degree crime, and agreed to pay a six-figure penalty and face a decade-long ban from doing business with the State, after it put unqualified drivers behind the wheels of school buses and deceived school districts about its hiring practices and the safety of its bus fleet.

A-1 Elegant Tours — also known as Eastern Star Transportation — entered a guilty plea on April 28, 2025, during a hearing before Judge Michael Ravin in New Jersey Superior Court in Essex County.

The company pleaded guilty to making false representations for a government contract (2nd degree) under a plea agreement with OPIA. A-1 Elegant Tours agreed to pay a $250,000 anticorruption profiteering penalty and is debarred from doing business with the State for 10 years. During the plea hearing, the company’s principal and owner, Shelim Khalique, 55, of Wayne, New Jersey, provided the factual basis for the company’s guilt on behalf of the company. Additionally, Shelim Khalique has also agreed to a personal 10-year debarment and, as part of the global resolution in this matter, has been granted admission into the Pre-Trial Intervention Program on a falsifying records charge (4th degree) for a two-year term.

After A-1 Elegant was originally charged in 2020, another bus company, American Star Transportation LLC — owned by Shelim Khalique’s brother, Jwel Khalique, 45, of Totowa — inherited most, if not all, of A-1 Elegant’s buses, equipment, assets, and employees. That successor company, American Star, has entered into a 10-year monitoring agreement requiring the company, at its own expense, to retain an independent monitor that would ensure American Star’s strict compliance with all applicable state laws and regulations, including those governing the negotiation, award, and performance of student transportation contracts and contractors engaged in the transportation of school pupils under contracts awarded by boards of education.

Under the agreement, American Star will have to provide the monitor on a weekly basis with a list of school bus drivers, aides, and the routes each will be assigned to, and must include a certification, signed by company owner Jwel Khalique, confirming that all such drivers and aides have the necessary credentials required by law.

The agreement also requires the bus company to provide information to county school superintendents in the counties where it operates, showing that all the company’s school bus drivers underwent criminal background checks and that American Star performed drug and alcohol testing of its drivers, including testing upon initial employment followed by random testing. Under the monitoring agreement, the company must also provide yearly driver-record updates to those county superintendents, including lists of motor vehicle violations committed by each driver.

In addition, the agreement stipulates that Shelim Khalique not be involved, directly or indirectly, in the company’s operations in any capacity, formally or informally, and the company is obliged to promptly notify the monitor and OPIA of any allegations of conduct potentially in violation of the agreement.

The monitor will provide semi-annual reports to OPIA while Jwel Khalique must submit semi-annual certifications to the monitor certifying that the company has complied with the applicable provisions and all related standards, laws, and regulations. American Star has been operating under — and compliant with — similar pretrial monitoring conditions since December 2022.

In light of the global resolution, including defendant American Star entering that long-term monitoring agreement, the State moved to dismiss the charges against American Star and Jwel Khalique, respectively, without prejudice.

If the monitor or OPIA determine that the company failed to satisfy any terms or conditions of the agreement, OPIA can void the deal at its discretion and prosecute the company.

“This resolution ensures accountability, including a steep financial penalty, for this crime, and that State government contracts will be off-limits to the primary offenders well into the future,” said Attorney General Platkin. “This case has also resulted in stringent, independent monitoring to ensure that children get to school safely and that school districts and taxpayers are not deceived and taken advantage of.”

“Defrauding school districts and putting public safety at risk carries consequences, as this case reflects,” said Drew Skinner, Executive Director of the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability.

A state grand jury returned a superseding indictment against Shelim Khalique, Jwel Khalique, and American Star Transportation on June 28, 2023, alleging American Star was committing similar violations as its predecessor, A-1 Elegant Tours. A-1 misrepresented the qualifications of the company, its drivers, and its bus aides in order to be awarded contracts to transport students by various school districts.

After several defendants were indicted by the state grand jury over the conduct of A-1 Elegant Tours, the equipment, assets and employees of A-1 Elegant were transferred to American Star, owned by Jwel Khalique.

Henry Rhodes, 61, of Paterson, a manager at both bus companies, pleaded guilty in March 2023 to two counts of second-degree conspiracy and two counts of second-degree theft by deception, for conduct stemming from his involvement with the two bus companies.

As part of a plea agreement Rhodes agreed to be barred from doing business with the State of New Jersey or any of its administrative or political subdivisions for a decade, among other terms. His sentencing is scheduled for May 16, 2025.

Today’s plea was handled by Corruption Bureau Deputy Chief Frank L. Valdinoto, under the supervision of Bureau Co-Directors Jeffrey J. Manis and Eric Gibson, and OPIA Executive Director Skinner.

Defense counsel:
For Shelim Khalique: Lee Vartan, Roseland, N.J.
For A-1 Elegant Tours: Ray Mateo, Calcagni Kanefsky LLP, Newark, N.J.
For American Star Transportation: Naju R. Lathia, Parsippany, N.J.
For Jwel Khalique: Jason LeBouef, Esq., Livingston, N.J.
For Rhodes: Howard Lesnik, Esq., Mountainside, N.J.