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Former housing inspector sentenced for bribery
(by Cindy Forrest - October 29, 2008)
A Parsippany-Troy Hills housing inspector was sentenced to one month in federal prison and six months of home confinement. He accepted $5,000 in bribes from a general contractor in exchange for the inspector’s agreement not to inspect or regulate the contractor’s work, announced U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie.
In a Camden courtroom earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Joseph E. Irenas also ordered Thomas Seibel, 59, of Parsippany, to pay $5,000 in fines. According to Todd M. Finchler, Esq., Parsippany defense attorney, Seibel chose not to speak on his own behalf at the hearing.
Seibel pleaded guilty before Judge Irenas on May 19 to a one-count criminal charge of using interstate facilities (the mail and telephone) to distribute and facilitate bribery. He was subsequently fired from his $40,000 a year municipal job as a field-housing inspector but remained free on a $25,000 unsecured bond it said in a statement released by Christie’s office.
At his plea hearing, Seibel admitted that, beginning in July 2007, he agreed to refrain from exercising his official duties as a Parsippany housing inspector on some of the cooperating witness’s contracting projects in exchange for $5,000 in corrupt payments. According to a government witness the arrangement, between the housing inspector and the contractor, was actually a refund of money Seibel had already paid to the contractor for work that the contractor had done on Seibel’s home.
Seibel admitted that, in early August 2007, he received a $2,500 check from the cooperating witness that was sent from Pennsylvania to New Jersey via U.S. mail. Seibel said he accepted another $2,500 cash payment in August 2007 that constituted the balance of the $5,000 payment, during a meeting with the contractor at Seibel’s home.
In determining an actual sentence, Irenas consulted the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide appropriate sentencing ranges that take into account the severity and characteristics of the offense, the defendant’s criminal history, if any, and other factors, including acceptance of responsibility. The judge, however, has discretion and is not bound by those guidelines in determining a sentence.
Under those guidelines Seibel faced a year to 18 months behind bars. In sentencing, Irenas granted a downward variance from the advisory guideline range, and he even recommended that Seibel serve the time given to him in a halfway house. However, the Bureau of Prisons will make the final decision about the facility in which Seibel will serve his time.
Since parole has been abolished in the federal system, defendants who are given custodial terms must serve nearly all of that time.
Christie credited Special Agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Weysan Dun, for the investigation involving Seibel. Christie also credited investigators in the Special Prosecutions Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Gramiccioni of the Special Prosecutions Division also headed up the investigation of three other unrelated Parsippany cases against developer Edward Mosberg, former planning board attorney John Montefusco Sr. and former school board member John Montefusco Jr. prosecuted this case.
Cindy Forrest can be contacted at: forrestc@northjersey.com.
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