Holmdel Sues Former Attorney For 'Overpayments' Of $373.1K

HOLMDEL, NJ — Holmdel is suing its former tax appeal attorney Matthew O’Donnel and seeking to recover "overpayments" billed between 2016 and 2019.

O’Donnel signed a plea deal for fraud-related charges with the state attorney general in 2018 and was still able to work for the township for several months. According to the suit, he also worked for a number of other towns.

"When you read the case it’s very disturbing, it really is," Mayor Greg Buontempo told Patch. "What this guy was allowed to do and how he was able to take millions of dollars of taxpayer money and not have to return anything."

The attorney began cooperating with the state attorney general in early 2018 and made close to $6.5 million since his first meeting with prosecutors, the New Jersey Globe reported.

Between 2016 and 2019, O’Donnel was paid in total $373,134 by Holmdel Township.

The township filed suit on Sept. 1, seeking repayment for the amount overbilled, as well as punitive damages. O’Donnel and the firm O'Donnell McCord (which had an office in Morristown) are both named in it.

The lawsuit states that O’Donnel and his firm were "unjustly enriched because of their fraudulent and illegal activities, at the expense of the Plaintiff and its taxpayers."

It also says that he invoiced the town between double and four times as much as other law firms that did the same amount of work in the past.

O’Donnell pled guilty to one count of second-degree conspiracy to commit misconduct by a corporate official in July 2018, according to the plea agreement submitted in the suit as an exhibit.

He agreed then to "forfeit any and all public employment" and to be "disqualified from holding any office or position of honor, trust or profit under the State or any of its administrative or political subdivisions."

He also agreed to be debarred from doing business with the state of New Jersey for a period of 10 years and to pay full restitution to all victims, as well as a $250,000 penalty.

"The Township was not informed by the state of these charges," a statement from the township read in the last newsletter. "Despite his guilty pleas, the state allowed him to continue to serve as tax appeal counsel until 2019."

The state will recommend a prison sentence of eight years for O'Donnel, according to the New Jersey Globe.

Buontempo said that the township hasn't gotten a response from the judge yet since the suit was filed in early September, but expects to hear something very soon.

"From my understanding, we’re the only town that has filed any lawsuit to recapture money," Buontempo said. "I wouldn’t be surprised if any other towns also followed suit because it's not their money, it’s taxpayer money that was in my view stolen from them."