William Gauger, who a decade ago had grandiose dreams of building a new residential community and a couple of luxury golf courses in the Meadowlands, on Monday was indicted on more than a dozen fraud-related charges – some of which mention the EnCap project.
UPDATE: A closer look at the indictment:
First off, it never hurts to mention how profound “innocent until proven guilty” is when someone’s freedom is at stake. That phrase of course is acknowledged in the U.S. Attorney’s office press release.
Now let’s run down the indictment, keeping in mind that you need to read the article first for reference:
- The state alleges that Gauger refused to sign a contract with a financial consultant – said to be a friend of his – and refused to allow him to become an employee on the Asbury Park project even though the consultant pushed for such a formal agreement.
- Another claim is that Gauger threatened the consultant with the loss of future consulting work on New Jersey projects.
- Gauger is alleged to have said that a $100,000 payment to his brother-in-law was needed because the “Raleigh, N.C. company” – Cherokee Investment Partners – was not approving such payments, and that the consultant could deduct the cost as a business expense for tax purposes.
- The allegation also is that throughout 2006 – a key year in the history of the troubled EnCap project – Gauger engaged in depriving Cherokee’s right to “honest services” – a familiar phrase for fans of North Jersey corruption cases of recent vintage.
- There is an allegation here that Gauger instructed both his brother-in-law and the consultant to contribute $10K each to a “a candidate who was running for statewide public office.” It looks like there were no Senate races in Virginia that year, but Democrat Tim Kaine defeated Republican Tim Kilgore by 52-46 percent in the gubernatorial election. I couldn’t tell you at this point where that money went, or prove that the money was even contributed. That’s the state’s job.
- The time frame of these alleged crimes was from Jan. 2005 – not long after the time the once-stalled EnCap project ramped up its efforts – to April 2007.
As has been the case since late 2006 – when we began a deep investigation into the EnCap matter – we’ll keep you posted…