Ex-Toms River Schools Chief Ritacco Released From Prison

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Michael Ritacco, the former superintendent of the Toms River Regional Schools who was sentenced to 11 years prison in 2012 for taking bribes to influence school district insurance contracts, has been released from prison.

Ritacco, 72, is among hundreds of federal prisoners who are being released into home confinement by federal authorities because of outbreaks of the coronavirus in the federal prison system.

He has been serving his 135-month sentence at Fairton Federal Correctional Institute in Cumberland County, and had a projected release date of May 25, 2022. This week he was moved to the Residential Reentry Management Center in Philadelphia, according to prison records.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons does not release information about individual inmates, but the Residential Reentry Management Center oversees inmates released to halfway houses and home confinement. Home confinement allows inmates to live with family members while they complete their sentences. In a video that circulated on Facebook last week, a family member said Ritacco would be living at their home.

There have been 620 federal inmates who have tested positive for the virus as of April 23, and 357 staff members, with 302 inmates and 53 staff members who have recovered from the illness. Twenty-four federal inmates have died, according to federal officials.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr in March ordered the Bureau of Prisons to move inmates who are considered to be low risk to the public to home confinement, particularly those who are at risk of serious complications, because of the virus. More than 4,000 inmates have been released to home confinement.

At the Fairton facility, where Ritacco was serving his sentence, there has been one staff member test positive. There have been no inmate cases, according to federal officials.

Ritacco was imprisoned in October 2012 after he pleaded guilty to mail fraud and conspiracy to defraud the IRS. He took more than $1 million in bribes, then-U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said, and "enriched himself at the expense of the Toms River citizens."

"By accepting bribes of more than a million dollars and cheating on his taxes, he betrayed the trust of the taxpayers, students, parents, and teachers of that school district," Fishman said at the time.

In addition to the prison term, Ritacco also had to pay the Toms River school district more than $4 million in restitution. During Thursday night's Citizens Budget Advisory meeting of the school board, Business Administrator William Doering said all but about $200,000 has been paid and the district's attorney is actively pursuing the remainder.

From 2002 to April 2010, Ritacco accepted between $1 million and $2 million in bribes and other benefits from co-schemers Francis X. Gartland, 71, the former insurance broker for the Toms River Regional School District; Frank D’Alonzo, 55, a former administrator at the Toms River Regional School District; and Frank Cotroneo, 62, an insurance broker, and others.

The bribes and other benefits were made in return for Ritacco’s official assistance to Gartland and other co-schemers in obtaining and maintaining insurance business with the Toms River Regional School District. Ritacco also admitted that in 2002, he, Gartland, Cotroneo, and D’Alonzo agreed to have Ritacco approve a workers’ compensation insurance contract between Gartland and the school district, which yielded approximately $500,000 to $600,000 annually in excess fees, with such proceeds to be used to make hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to Ritacco.

To conceal this fraudulent scheme from the Toms River Regional School District Board, as well as the IRS, Ritacco and his co-schemers agreed to use middlemen, shell companies, sham consulting contracts, and third-party payments, to secretly pass hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash bribes and other payments to Ritacco.

Ritacco also admitted to filing fraudulent tax returns for tax years 2004 through 2006, and to conspiring with Gartland to evade Ritacco’s federal income taxes from approximately 2002 to 2010.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Pisano sentenced Ritacco to three years of supervised release and fined him a total of $100,000.

"Michael Ritacco was entrusted by the public to oversee and administer one of New Jersey's largest school districts, and consequently help oversee the education and welfare of the community's children," FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael B. Ward said at the time. "Instead of embracing this responsibility, he chose to leverage his position to engage in illegal activity in which he received cash and benefits in excess of $1 million. It is yet another example of a community leader placing self-interest above those he represents."

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