Internat'l Trucks owners, salesman indicted
Feds allege former DPW director took cash gifts in cigar, cigarette containers
BY KAREN E. BOWES & COLLEEN LUTOLF
Staff Writers

Operation Bid Rig officially spread into Ocean County Friday when a grand jury handed down another indictment charging illegal payoffs between local government officials and contractors.

Matthew Appolonia, 41, of Berkeley Heights, his brother, Stephen Appolonia, 53, of Colts Neck, and Robert Feldman, 49, of Brick, are respective co-owners and the municipal salesman of International Trucks of Central Jersey (ITCJ). They are named in a 19-count indictment detailing charges related to bribing several local officials in Monmouth and Ocean counties in exchange for steering local truck sales to their company.

This is the first time the FBI has charged Matthew Appolonia. Brother Stephen Appolonia was charged with money laundering on March 10, 2005, along with Far Hills Councilman Thomas Greenwald, an acquaintance and alleged collaborator.

If found guilty on all charges, Stephen Appolonia faces a total of 310 years, Matthew Appolonia faces 270 years, and Feldman, 140 years. Fines for the brothers would be in the $7 million range, if found guilty on all counts.

Matthew Appolonia and Feldman each posted $50,000 bail by Friday afternoon, said Michael Drewniak, a public affairs officer with the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Arrested in February 2005 on charges related to some of the conduct described in the indictment, Stephen Appolonia remains free on $250,000 bail, Drewniak said.

Feldman's attorney, Michael Koribanics, of Koribanics & Koribanics, Clifton, said his client is innocent of the charges lodged against him.

"We're vigorously going to defend these accusations," he said. "Just because the government makes an accusation, doesn't mean it's true. We're going on the words of what politicians are saying occurred."

Feldman has been an International Trucks employee for seven years, Koribanics said. He called his client an "accomplished truck salesman."

"The people claiming this are people allegedly abusing their positions," he said.

Bid Rig expands south

The 28-page indictment alleges Brick's Department of Public Works director between 1998 and 2004 accepted a total of $3,000 in corrupt payments on two occasions from Stephen Appolonia, which were either concealed in a cigar tube or cigarette box, and enjoyed free trips to watch boat races in Canada, Ocean County, and other locales.

Federal authorities allege the Appolonia brothers and Feldman recouped costs for those trips by inflating the price of two of the four vehicles sold to Brick Township by at least $2,200 sometime between May 2002 and September 2003.

Although named only as Official 1 in the indictment, John H. Nydam was Brick's public works director during the dates specified in the indictment.

"As far as Mr. Nydam goes, it's obvious it's him," Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli said Friday.

Brick's public works director requested five vehicles to be purchased from International Trucks sometime between 1997 and 1998, the indictment states.

Sometime around midyear in 1998, Nydam was allegedly compensated $2,500 as a reward for securing International Trucks the contract for those vehicles. Nydam's reward was allegedly passed on to him in a cigar tube in a Bradley Beach restaurant, authorities said.

Four years later in a Howell restaurant, Stephen Appolonia again rewarded Nydam when he passed him $500 in cash concealed in a cigarette pack, authorities said. The payment was to ensure Nydam would continue to secure work for International Trucks with Brick, authorities stated.

Between June 2002 and August 2004, Stephen Appolonia and Feldman provided Nydam with the trips to the races. Feldman instructed Nydam to keep to himself information regarding the free entertainment he was receiving, according to the indictment.

Nydam pleaded guilty to official misconduct, theft and witness tampering in state Superior Court in Toms River in April as a result of an Ocean County Prosecutor's Office investigation.

Nydam is scheduled for sentencing Sept. 15. He was not reappointed to his position as public works director after his term ended in December 2005. He had been employed by Brick for over 13 years.

Federal authorities also allege that a second Ocean County official, a mechanic employed by Seaside Heights Borough, received $1,200, also concealed inside a cigarette box, from Matthew Appolonia in 1999 to influence the municipality to purchase vehicles and equipment from International Trucks. Seaside Heights purchased a vehicle from International Trucks in 1999, according to the indictment.

Monmouth County redux

Three former Monmouth County employees are also mentioned in the latest Bid Rig indictment.

Raymond O'Grady, former director of the county's Central Motor Pool, the office responsible for securing all of the county's vehicles, was a sitting committeeman in Middletown at the time of his arrest. Convicted in June of accepting bribes in return for steering county contracts, O'Grady now awaits sentencing while under house arrest.

The former Middletown mayor comes up again in count 12 of the Appolonia indictment, shown as ordering unnecessary equipment and approving the payment of inflated or false charges from ITCJ, in exchange for cash payments of about $2,000 for each occurrence, according to the FBI.

Anthony Palughi, O'Grady's former buddy turned FBI informant, testified at O'Grady's trial, helping to convict him. Palughi agreed to wear a wire after being arrested in December 2004 on charges he delivered cash bribes and other corrupt activity.

According to the FBI, evidence exists that sometime between October and December 2004, O'Grady back-dated an invoice for approximately $6,000 for ITCJ equipment, after Stephen Appolonia suggested doing so in order to evade detection from a "local law enforcement investigation."

Harry Larrison, a member of the Monmouth County Freeholders for four decades is also mentioned in the indictment. Larrison was charged in April 2005 on charges of accepting bribes.

Although he died before being indicted, Larrison is listed in the Appolonia indictment as accepting "significant free services" to vehicles associated with his private business, Larrison Coal & Fuel, Neptune, from September 2001 to February 2005.

In return for the repairs, Larrison is said to have offered his "official influence in Monmouth County and other local government matters involving ITCJ," according to the indictment.

Taxpayers bore the brunt of this arrangement, since all repair charges were tacked onto the cost of ITCJ equipment bought by the county, according to the FBI.

In February 2005, in response to "a local law enforcement investigation," both Stephen and Matthew Appolonia asked Larrison to secure them with a payment of some kind in order to make their dealings appear more "realistic, God forbid anybody looks," and "legitimate," said Stephen Appolonia, according to the FBI.

Larrison authorized a private business check for $5,110.51 to Air Brake Exchange, "as a token payment," according to the FBI, on Feb. 15, 2005.

Schemes in Neptune

The indictment also alleges that a general manager of a New Jersey vehicle services company, identified only as "GM" in the indictment, who was contracted by Neptune Township to oversee and supervise the maintenance of all government vehicles for Neptune, aided the Appolonia brothers and Feldman to defraud Neptune and the vehicle services company of honest services.

Feldman is also accused of brokering the sale of three commercial trucks between Neptune's Department of Public Works and International Trucks. The Appolonia brothers and Feldman listed a $500 "consultation fee" in their books as an expense for each truck, and the $1,500 was used to pay the general manager, according to the indictment.

Feldman also advised the general manager to create a false invoice from the general manager's landscaping business for $1,500 in services that had never been performed, according to the indictment. Stephen Appolonia then wrote a $1,500 check issued from International Trucks, which was later delivered to the general manager, and the general manager later deposited the $1,500 into the landscaping company's business account, according to the indictment.

This ruse was used again sometime around April 2004 for $5,000, said federal authorities. Sometime between September 2003 and March 2005, Neptune purchased seven commercial vehicles from International Trucks.

For each truck, a $1,000 consultation fee was charged to Neptune so that the defendants could allegedly recoup the payments made to the general manager, according to the indictment.

Corruption alleged in

Long Branch area

For the first time, the indictment also raised the possibility of corrupt dealings between International Trucks and officials in Long Branch and West Long Branch. Again, officials are referred to by title, not by name.

A Long Branch council member, referred to as Official 4 in the indictment, received a $300 cash payment from Matthew Appolonia in an Eatontown bar in Aug. 2001, according to the indictment.

The payment was meant to secure the official's assistance in influencing Long Branch to purchase ITCJ vehicles, according to the FBI. Five to 11 months later, Long Branch purchased two vehicles from International Trucks, according to the indictment.

Former Long Branch Councilman John R. "Fazz" Zambrano resigned his council seat on July 20 after entering a guilty plea before a U.S. District court judge. As part of a plea agreement reached with the U.S. Attorney's Office, Zambrano admitted he accepted a $1,000 payment through an intermediary in November 2003 at a party in Atlantic City in exchange for using his official position to assist the informant in obtaining city contracts.

In November 2002, Matthew Appolonia gave Official 4 approximately $500 in a bar in Atlantic City to steer truck purchases by Long Branch to ITCJ, the indictment states.

Again in February 2004, Matthew Appolonia gave $300 to Official 4 in a bar in Sayreville, a payment that resulted in the purchase of three ITCJ vehicles by the city in or about July 2003 and May 2004, according to the charges.

Official 5 is described only as an elected official in West Long Branch.

In 2002, Matthew Appolonia gave two corrupt cash payments, totaling approximately $800, at a rest stop on the Garden State Parkway in Union, to Official 5 to influence West Long Branch to purchase two ITCJ vehicles, according to the indictment.

Also not named in the indictment was former West Long Branch Mayor Paul Zambrano, who confessed last August to accepting a total of $15,000 in bribes from the FBI's cooperating witness and is still awaiting sentencing. Paul Zambrano pleaded guilty to one count of extortion, which carries a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

Appolonia gave approximately $500 to a West Long Branch council member, referred to in the indictment as Official 6, in July 2002 in Middletown in an attempt to obtain the council member's assistance in influencing West Long Branch to purchase International Trucks vehicles, according to the FBI.

Both Zambrano and former West Long Branch Councilman Joseph DeLisa, who also was not named in the indictment, were arrested by FBI agents on Feb. 22, 2005. At that time, DeLisa maintained his innocence. However, on April 17 of this year, DeLisa was indicted by a federal grand jury in Newark on four counts of extortion related to the Bid Rig charges.