George E. Norcross III, New Jersey’s once-powerful Democratic kingmaker, was charged on Monday with racketeering along with five other defendants.
The 13-count indictment unsealed by New Jersey’s attorney general, Matthew J. Platkin, accused the group of unlawfully obtaining property and property rights on the waterfront in Camden, N.J., fraudulently collecting millions of dollars in government-issued tax credits, and controlling and influencing government officials.
“George Norcross has been running a criminal enterprise in this state for at least the last 12 years,” Mr. Platkin said in a statement. “On full display in this indictment is how a group of unelected, private businessmen used their power and influence to get government to aid their criminal enterprise and further its interests.”
Mr. Norcross’s brother, Philip A. Norcross, the chief executive of a Camden-based law firm, and the city’s former mayor, Dana L. Redd, were also among those charged in the indictment. Mr. Platkin’s government-integrity unit had been investigating Mr. Norcross for more than a year in connection with the redevelopment of the Camden waterfront.
On Monday afternoon, George Norcross, who now lives in Florida, showed up at a news conference Mr. Platkin held in Trenton, N.J. Dressed in a suit and loafers without socks, he stared from the front row of the room as the attorney general described the charges contained in a 111-page indictment. Mr. Norcross’s team of lawyers and at least one co-defendant, William Tambussi, a lawyer who has represented the city of Camden, sat behind him.
George Norcross said Mr. Platkin was acting on a personal vendetta, calling him a “coward” and a “politician masquerading as an attorney general.”
“He’s innocent,” his lawyer, Michael Critchley, added. “He’s not afraid of the accusations.”
The charges immediately served to further tarnish the already blemished reputation of New Jersey politics. The state’s senior senator, Robert Menendez, is in his sixth week of a corruption trial, charged by federal prosecutors with accepting cash, gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz in exchange for his willingness to use his political clout to dole out favors for allies.
Mr. Norcross, an insurance executive who served on the Democratic National Committee, was for decades the most powerful unelected political official in New Jersey. By donating generously to political campaigns and assembling a powerful South Jersey voting bloc in the Legislature, he was instrumental in selecting governors, steering legislation and influencing state policy.
About a year ago, Mr. Norcross suggested he was stepping back from politics after a series of embarrassing legislative defeats. His public statements coincided with news reports that the attorney general’s office had revived its investigation into more than a billion dollars in tax breaks awarded to South Jersey companies close to Mr. Norcross under legislation backed by former Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican.
During his first term, Gov. Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat, railed against that tax incentive program, and sparred openly with Mr. Norcross — tension that defined much of his first two years in office. Mr. Platkin was Mr. Murphy’s chief counsel when the state began investigating the program, the Economic Opportunity Act of 2013, and was later tapped as attorney general.
Crafted with help from a well-connected Democratic lawyer, the program gave out nearly $7 billion in tax breaks but provided few guardrails to protect the state against fraud.
Controversy over the program prompted legislative hearings and subpoenas to companies and at least one state agency, but charges were never filed.
Mr. Platkin, Mr. Norcross said, carried his “agenda” with him to the attorney general’s office, where he “forced people in his building to implement his will.”
The feud between Mr. Murphy and Mr. Norcross appeared to ease as the governor was running for re-election in 2021. Mr. Murphy signed off on his own $14 billion tax incentive package in late 2020, and he and Mr. Norcross began appearing together in public, a scenario that for years was unheard-of.
Last year, as Mr. Murphy’s wife, Tammy Murphy, was vying to run for U.S. Senate, the Camden County Democratic Committee, an influential group controlled by Mr. Norcross, was one of the first political organizations to back her. The endorsement came at a crucial time for Ms. Murphy, a first-time candidate, giving an air of inevitability to her faltering campaign.
Ms. Murphy dropped out of the race in March, days before a crucial building block of Mr. Norcross’s success — a tradition unique to New Jersey in which party leaders gave preferential treatment to their favored candidates on primary election ballots — was declared unconstitutional, first by Mr. Platkin and then by a federal judge.
As a result, Mr. Platkin’s relationship with Mr. Murphy, once one of his closest allies, has frayed.
On Monday, Mr. Norcross heaped praise on Mr. Murphy for being “incredibly supportive” and generous toward the city of Camden.
In addition to Mr. Norcross and his brother, the others charged are:
Mr. Tambussi, 66, of Brigantine, N.J., the longtime personal lawyer for Mr. Norcross.
Ms. Redd, 56, of Sicklerville, N.J., the chief executive officer of Camden Community Partnership, and the former mayor of Camden.
Sidney R. Brown, 67, of Philadelphia, the chief executive of NFI, a trucking and logistics company.
John J. O’Donnell, 61, of Newtown, Pa., who has been in the executive leadership of the Michaels Organization, a residential development company.
Mr. Tambussi, who joined Mr. Norcross and Mr. Critchley for an impromptu news conference after Mr. Platkin finished announcing the charges, said he was “proud of the work” he had done for the city of Camden.
“I kind of wonder why I’m here,” he added.
