TRENTON – Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino today announced two new initiatives to fight public corruption, including a reward program offering up to $25,000 for tips from the public, as well as a program that offers lower-level defendants in a corruption scheme the potential to avoid prosecution if they reveal the crime to the Attorney General’s Office so more culpable defendants can be prosecuted.
New Jersey has tough anti-corruption laws that provide mandatory minimum terms of imprisonment and parole ineligibility for people who commit crimes that touch upon their public office or employment. The Attorney General’s Office has utilized these laws in recent years to prosecute major cases involving elected officials, government employees and companies receiving public funds. A critical challenge, however, is securing the initial leads that allow such crimes to be uncovered and prosecuted. The new programs are designed to encourage those with information on corruption to come forward.
“It’s a troubling reality that along with the many public officials and employees who carry out their duties with integrity, there are some who abuse their authority and corruptly exploit their positions for personal gain,” said Attorney General Porrino. “We know these bad actors are out there, and we’re casting a wide net to catch them with these two new programs. For members of the public who have personal knowledge of corruption and are fed up with it, we’re offering an added motivation for them to turn their anger into action.”
“Our whistleblower program strategically allows secondary players in corruption schemes to come clean and avoid prosecution,” Porrino added. “Whether we’re talking about a skilled public worker assigned to act as a personal handyman for his boss, or a contractor asked to pay bribes to a local code inspector, or a corporate employee pressured by executives to make illegal political contributions, we’re offering a way out of such predicaments for those who come forward first and are less culpable.”
“These new programs offer strong incentives for people to come forward confidentially and help us root out public corruption, whether they’re tipsters from the public seeking a reward, or public workers or others seeking to extricate themselves from a corrupt scheme,” said Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice. “By offering the programs for a limited time, we’re looking for swift results, and we will vigorously pursue every lead.”
“By implementing the Anti-Corruption Reward and Anti-Corruption Whistleblower Programs for a relatively short time frame, we are hoping for quick and decisive action by anyone with knowledge of public corruption by elected officials and government employees,” said Colonel Rick Fuentes, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police. “The goal of the initiatives is to encourage those to come forward with information that will eventually lead to the prosecution of anyone who engages in these corruption schemes.”
Attorney General Porrino announced the following programs to promote reporting of corruption cases:
Anti-Corruption Reward Program
Anti-Corruption Whistleblower Program
The programs are intended to encourage individuals who have information on public corruption to come forward promptly, so they will be open for a limited time. Both programs will expire on Aug. 1, 2017.
The Attorney General’s Office will keep the identities of applicants to the programs confidential to the fullest extent possible, subject to any statute, rule of court, or judicial decision to the contrary which may require disclosure to certain parties, including, in certain circumstances, a criminal defendant. Applicants to each program may be interviewed by detectives at the discretion of the Division of Criminal Justice. The applicant may also be required to give his or her verbal statement under oath and sign a written memorialization of his or her statement.
Additional information about the two programs can be found posted with this press release on the Attorney General’s Office website: www.njpublicsafety.com.
Individuals may report information and apply for the Anti-Corruption Reward Program or Anti-Corruption Whistleblower Program by one of the following methods:
New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety
Division of Criminal Justice
25 Market Street
P.O. Box 085
Trenton, NJ 08625-0085
Attention: Anti-Corruption Reward Program OR Anti-Corruption Whistleblower Program.
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