N.J. Att’y Disbarred for Role in Bribery Scheme, RICO Violations

A New Jersey attorney and former head of a local Democratic organization was disbarred by the state’s highest court after he was criminally convicted of racketeering.

The Supreme Court of New Jersey agreed with the findings of the state disciplinary review board that Joseph A. Ferriero violated professional ethics rules prohibiting fraud and conduct that reflects adversely on a lawyer’s honesty.

Ferriero arranged with the owner of a software development company, C3 Holdings LLC, to use his influence as head of the Bergen County Democratic Organization to exert pressure on local officials to contract with the company, for which Ferriero would receive a portion of the profits from those contracts, the review board said.

He ultimately received $11,875 in kickbacks from the contracts with five local municipalities.

Ferriero was found guilty in 2015 of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and the New Jersey bribery statute, sentenced to almost three years in jail, and fined. He was also temporarily suspended from practicing law.

In the disciplinary hearing that followed, the review board noted that a criminal conviction is conclusive evidence of guilt in a disciplinary proceeding. The board said Ferriero’s conviction for racketeering and bribery is a violation of ethics rules that declare it to be professional misconduct for an attorney to “commit a criminal act that reflects adversely on the lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer.”

The sole issue left to be resolved was the extent of discipline to be imposed, the board said. And just because Ferriero’s conduct didn’t involve the practice of law, that doesn’t lessen the degree of sanction, it said.

Noting that New Jersey attorney disciplinary jurisprudence “has an unfortunately lengthy history of disbarment cases involving bribery,” the disciplinary board found that Ferriero’s behavior warranted disbarment under that precedent because he had been a central figure in the scheme that financially harmed several municipalities.

The case is In re Ferriero, N.J., No. 18-343, 9/19/19.