Former Washington Township Councilman Gets 8 Years For Bilking Companies, Investors Out Of $5.3M

TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON, N.J. — A former state assemblyman from Bergen County was sentenced to eight years in state prison Monday for stealing and writing back checks for more than $5.3 million from creditors and companies.

Robert Schroeder, 56, of Washington Township, pleaded guilty in October to misconduct by a corporate official. He represented the 39th Legislative District from 2010 to 2014, which includes portions of Bergen and Passaic counties.

A state investigation revealed that Schroeder operated four companies, All Points International Distributors, Inc.; Hercules Global Logistics, LLC; RS Consultants, LLC; and RGS Bergen, LLC. Through these companies, Schroder wrote at least 47 bad checks to 12 people who loaned him money for various businesses and to two companies that provided him with goods or services.

“As Schroeder’s business ventures failed, he solicited creditors to prop him up financially, lying to them about how their funds would be used and his ability to repay them,” Attorney General Porrino said in a statement. “He built a house of cards on his status as an elected official and then let his creditors suffer the losses when it all came crashing down."

Schroeder must pay full restitution of $5.3 million to his victims, and is permanently barred from public office and public employment in New Jersey.

One of the companies sold tents and prefabricated buildings to the United States military to use in Afghanistan and Iraq. As business began to decline after government contracts dropped off, Schroeder sought several short-term loans from individuals who were promised a high rate of return, an investigation revealed. As Schroeder fell behind on those loan payments, between October 2009 and August 2012, he wrote the bad checks, Porrino said.

The investigation also revealed that Schroeder stole nearly $1.9 million from at least five people who loaned him the money so Hercules Global Logistics LLC, could supply housing, catering, and other services as part of a base camp for an oil drilling project in North Dakota.

Schroeder claimed he would finish the housing project by the end of 2012, but used the money for personal expenses and other debts.

Schroeder’s Assembly website states that he was “committed to the core values of fiscal responsibility” as an assemblyman and had been deputy Republican whip in the assembly. He also was a councilman in his native Washington Township in the 1990s before being elected to the Assembly.

Schroder was initially indicted with passing bad checks in 2012 after detectives searched his business headquarters in Hillsdale when he was arrested.

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Photo: Robert Schroeder, 56, of Washington Township — Courtesy of New Jersey Attorney General's Office