Birdsall CEO who got 4 years for corruption released after 6 months

TRENTON — Howard Birdsall, the former CEO of an influential engineering firm who admitted flouting state campaign finance laws to funnel illegal donations to politicians, was released from prison six months into his four-year sentence, NJ Advance Media has learned. Birdsall pleaded guilty this year to second-degree misconduct by a corporate official after investigators found executives… Read the rest of this entry »

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Howard Birdsall Pleads Guilty To Pay To Play Crimes

Howard Birdsall, 72 of Brielle, pleaded guilty today to corporate misconduct for his role in a criminal scheme in which more than $1 million in corporate political contributions were illegally made through employees of his now defunct engineering firm, Birdsall Services Group, in violation New Jersey’s pay-to-play law, according to an announcement by the NJ Attorney General’s Office.

Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Birdsall be sentenced to four years in state prison. He also must pay $49,808 to the state, representing forfeiture of the political contributions that he made on behalf Birdsall Services Group that were reimbursed by the firm. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 22.

“As the CEO and largest shareholder of Birdsall Services Group, Howard Birdsall reaped major profits from the millions of dollars in public contracts his firm secured each year – contracts that should have been off limits based on the illegal campaign contributions made by the firm,” said Acting Attorney General Hoffman. “This plea should serve as a warning to any corporate officials who would engage in this type of criminal scheme to skirt our pay-to-play law and skew public contracting in their favor.”

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Birdsall Engineering’s Assets Seized

The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office has seized the assets of Birdsall Services Group, the Eatontown based  engineering and consulting firm that does did business with Monmouth County and many government entities throughout the state, according to a Star Ledger report on NJ.com.

The firm and seven of it’s executives, including former CEO Howard Birdsall, were indicted on felony pay to play charges on Tuesday.  The indictments allege that the firm and the executives skirted New Jersey’s ELEC regulations by having employees make political contributions below the disclosure threashold, $300, and later reimbursed the employees through bonuses. The scheme enabled the firm to accept government contracts they would have been disqualified for had the company made the political donations directly to the candidates or committees receiving the funds.

Monmouth County Assignment Judge Lawrence M. Lawson signed the order authorizing the state to seize all of the firms assests and to retain the property as evidence in a criminal proceeding subject to permanent forfeiture.

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MMM Year in Review – May

Seal Team 6 killed Osama Bin Laden.

Having lost the legislative map battle, Governor Christie made a deal with Senate President Stephen Sweeney over Supreme Court Justice nominees’ confirmation hearing.  In making the deal, six months before the general election, Christie implicitly conceded that the Democrats would retain control of the State Senate and the Sweeney would remain Senate President.

Howard Birdsall resigned as chairman of the Brookdale College board of trustees.

The world did not end.  The Rapture was rescheduled for October.

The State Supreme Court reaffirmed the Abbott decision, assuring that New Jersey’s educational system would remain racially segregated  and funded by the highest property taxes in the nation.

The Neptune Board of Education made a deal with the ACLU that prevented litigation and kept the high school graduation at the Ocean Grove Great Auditorium.

Governor Christie pulled New Jersey out of the RGGI cap and trade scheme.

86 veterans of the Battle of the Bulge and their families attended a Survivors Reunion and Monument Rededication Ceremony at Thorne Middle School in Middletown.

Rutgers paid Snooki $32,000 to bestow her wisdom upon the student body. They paid retiring University president Richard McCormick $550,000 to take a year off and will pay him $335,000 per year to teach history when he returns.

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Birdsall Resigns As Brookdale Chair

By Art Gallagher

The fallout associated with the financial mismanagement of Brookdale Community College continued today with the resignation of Howard Birdsall, the chairman of the board of trustees.  Birdsall served on the board since 1998.  His resignation is effective Friday, according to The Asbury Park Press.

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