Gerard Pica, Extortion, New Jersey 2013

NEWARK, N.J. – Two New Jersey men were sentenced to prison for extorting thousands of dollars in corrupt payments in connection with arranging approvals to provide landfill materials for a Hudson County Improvement Authority project.

Gerard Pica, 66, of Middletown, New Jersey, and James Castaldo, 60, of Beachwood, New Jersey, were sentenced to 35 and 51 months in prison, respectively. Pica previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares to Count Four of an indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right. Castaldo previously pleaded guilty before Judge Linares to Count One of the indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right. Judge Linares imposed both sentences today in Newark federal court.

The Hudson County Improvement Authority was overseeing the construction of a nine-hole public golf course located at Lincoln Park West in Jersey City, New Jersey. As part of its construction, the project required several hundred thousand cubic yards of soil, fill material and crushed stone to be incorporated into the site.

Castaldo ran Renda Enterprises LLC, which provided interstate transportation and broker services that moved or received recycled waste and other materials. Pica had been employed by the Hudson County Improvement Authority as an environmental scientist and had the ability to influence the agency’s decisions regarding the selection of contractors to provide soil and fill material to the project.

From August 2010 through November 2011, Pica, Castaldo and others schemed to obtain payments from certain contractors in exchange for Pica and another individual’s assistance in getting approval for certain companies to provide materials for the project.

Pica admitted that he arranged to obtain corrupt payments from Individual 3, the owner of a recycling business in Bayonne, New Jersey. Pica admitted using his authority at the Hudson County Improvement Authority to ensure that Individual 3 and Individual 3’s company received approval to provide Class B materials, including crushed stone, for the project. As part of the agreement, Individual 3 would pay Castaldo a fee – $2 per cubic yard of fill and soil material delivered to the site – for the benefit of Pica, Castaldo and another individual. Pica admitted receiving approximately $6,600 in December 2010 as a partial payment of his share. In addition, Pica admitted to creating a fraudulent invoice from a separate company which he owned for monies purportedly owed to him by Renda Enterprises. Pica admitted that he accepted a check for $6,000 from Renda Enterprises in April 2011, knowing that this amount was further payment of his share which he extorted from Individual 3.

Castaldo admitted that in early 2011, he met with Pica and a person referred to in the indictment as Individual 1, who was the owner of a full service environmental consulting firm seeking authorization to dump soil and fill material at the project site. Castaldo admitted that he, Pica and Individual 1 agreed upon the amount per cubic yard that Individual 1 would have to pay in return for Pica’s assistance in ensuring Individual 1 would receive authorization to dump the material at the site.

The men’s scheme resulted in Castaldo receiving approximately $13,000 in corrupt payments, while Pica received approximately $12,600.

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