Former Brick Administrator Pleads Guilty In Birdsall Pay-To-Play Scheme

BRICK, NJ -- A former Brick Township administrator has pleaded guilty to violating New Jersey’s pay-to-play law in connection with his role as an executive of Birdsall Services Group, the state attorney general’s office announced Wednesday.

Scott R. MacFadden, 61, of Brick, pleaded guilty in Superior Court in Ocean County to participating in the scheme in which hundreds of thousands of dollars in corporate political contributions were illegally made through employees of the firm to evade New Jersey’s pay-to-play law, Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman said.

Two other former Birdsall employees previously pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

MacFadden pleaded guilty to a charge of third-degree misconduct by a corporate official before Superior Court Judge James Den Uyl in Ocean County.

Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that MacFadden be sentenced to up to 364 days in the county jail as a condition of a term of probation. He also must pay $30,000 to the state, representing forfeiture of the political contributions that he made on behalf Birdsall Services Group, which were reimbursed by the firm. At the time of the indictment, authorities said he received at least $77,957 in illegally reimbursed contributions.

MacFadden was hired as assistant business administrator in Brick in 1985 and served as business administrator from 1989 through 2006, before leaving to join Birdsall in 2007.

Several other executives at the engineering firm also were indicted, including former CEO Howard C. Birdsall, 72, of Brielle, who resigned in 2012; Thomas Rospos, 63, of Belmar, a former executive vice president; William Birdsall, 66, of Manchester, Howard’s brother, who was senior vice president and was a significant shareholder of the firm; Alan Hilla Sr., of Brielle, executive vice president for business development for Birdsall; James Johnston of North Brunswick, president of the environmental consulting division; and Robert Gerard of Wall, former chief marketing officer.

Each was charged March 26, 2013, with first-degree counts of conspiracy, two counts of money laundering, making false representations for government contracts, misconduct by a corporate official, tampering with public records or information, falsifying records, prohibited corporation contributions through employees, and concealment or misrepresentation of contributions or expenditures.

Birdsall Services Group -– an engineering firm formerly based in Eatontown that now is out of business -– pleaded guilty on June 13, 2013 to charges of first-degree money laundering and second-degree making false representations for government contracts. As a result of its plea, Birdsall Services Group paid two major criminal penalties: a $500,000 public corruption profiteering penalty and a $500,000 anti-money laundering profiteering penalty, a. In each instance, the penalty was the maximum amount authorized by law. Birdsall also paid the state $2.6 million to settle a civil forfeiture action filed by the Attorney General’s Office in connection with the criminal case, a news release on the case said.

The charges stemmed from a yearlong investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau sparked by the ex-wife of another defendant, Phillip Angarone, who taped a conversation between the two where Angarone admitted to the scheme, prosecutors have said.

Rospos is scheduled to go on trial before Judge James Den Uyl in Ocean County on Feb. 22. Rospos is the first defendant scheduled for trial.

Two former employees of the marketing department of Birdsall, Angarone, 43, of Hamilton, the former marketing director, and Eileen Kufahl, 51, of Bradley Beach, pleaded guilty to participating in the scheme before the indictment was returned and are awaiting sentencing.

The first-degree charges carry a sentence of 10 to 20 years in state prison, and the money laundering counts also carry fines and penalties of up to $1 million. The indictment is merely an accusation and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.