Truck co. co-owner admits paying off public officials

NEWARK - - A co-owner of International Trucks of Central Jersey, located in Hillside and Howell, pleaded guilty Aug. 22 to bribing several local public officials.

Matthew Appolonia, 43, of Berkeley Heights, admitted providing corrupt payments and benefits to various officials from approximately 1997 through 2005 to facilitate the purchase of trucks from his company by various local governments, including Brick Township, Seaside Heights, West Long Branch Monmouth County.

The charge of defrauding the local governments of the honest services of their public officials carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Appolonia's sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 6.

"Appolonia and his co-conspirators rigged the system with their bribes, perpetrated a fraud on the public and corrupted willing public officials," U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said in a press release.

Specifically, during the plea hearing before U.S. District Judge William J. Martini in Newark, Appolonia admitted participating with his brother, Stephen Appolonia, in a scheme to provide cash payments and other benefits to the former director of public works for Brick Township during the late 1990s and as recently as 2004. A related corruption case against Stephen Appolonia, who was indicted with his brother on

July 28, 2006, remains pending.

Matthew Appolonia also admitted providing a corrupt payment of approximately $1,200 to a Seaside Heights municipal employee in 1999 for the purpose of rewarding him for his assistance in securing the purchase of an ITCJ truck by Seaside Heights. Matthew Appolonia also detailed making two separate corrupt payments totaling several hundred dollars to a former member of the West Long Branch Council during 2002 in an effort to secure that official's assistance in the sale of ITCJ trucks to the borough.

In addition, Matthew Appolonia admitted making corrupt payments to several public officials from Monmouth County to facilitate the purchase of ITCJ trucks by the county. Specifically, Matthew Appolonia admitted making a series of corrupt payments, typically ranging from $1,000 to $2,000, to former Middletown Committeeman Raymond O'Grady, who was also serving as the director of the Monmouth County Central Motor Pool, as well as payments to Anthony Palughi, the former superintendent of the Division of Bridges for Monmouth County. Matthew Appolonia admitted that the payments were designed to garner the assistance of O'Grady and Palughi in the purchase of ITCJ vehicles by the County of Monmouth as well as the purchase of equipment supplies and repairs.

O'Grady was convicted at trial in June 2006 for accepting corrupt payments from undercover FBI agents, as well as for his involvement in a scheme to accept a corrupt payment from Stephen Appolonia in relation to the repair of a transmission on a county truck. O'Grady was sentenced to 43 months in prison by Judge Martini on Oct. 11, 2006. Palughi pleaded guilty before Judge Martini to soliciting corrupt payments for influencing other public officials in their official capacity and is awaiting sentencing, which is scheduled for Oct. 23.

Matthew Appolonia also admitted to providing service at steeply discounted rates on the fleet of trucks belonging to the company owned by the former director of the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders.

Appolonia also explained that his company sometimes failed to collect the payments due for repairing these trucks in an effort to influence the freeholder to assist ITCJ with the sale of trucks to the county.

During the plea proceedings, Matthew Appolonia also admitted that ITCJ would charge the amount of the corrupt payments made by him to public officials back to the local government as part of the sale price on the specific trucks sold to those government entities.

On May 23, Robert Feldman, ITCJ's salesman in charge of sales to municipalities and a co-defendant of Matthew and Stephen Appolonia, pleaded guilty to facilitating corrupt payments to Richard Messer, in conjunction with the sale of ITCJ trucks to Neptune Township. During his plea proceedings, Feldman admitted that he instructed Messer, at the direction of Stephen Appolonia, to create phony landscaping invoices to conceal the true purpose of the payments to Messer, who worked for a vehicle services company in charge of purchasing vehicles on behalf of Neptune Township. Messer also pleaded guilty to mail fraud charges relating to this conduct. Feldman and Messer are scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Martini on Sept. 18 and Oct. 25, respectively.