Wayne Bryant
Wayne Bryant, former state senator, former Trenton bigshot, current felon, is coming home today. But not the way he figured. Serving a four-year sentence for corruption out of state since August of '09, Mr. Big is returning to New Jersey for arraignment on new criminal charges. He's charged with taking almost $200,000 in bribes to help a re-developer's projects. One of them could have uprooted 600 families from their homes in Camden, a place Bryant represented. Bryant was indicted with attorney Eric D. Wisler on multiple counts of fraud and bribery. Until earlier this year, Wisler was a partner at the powerful politically connected New Jersey lawfirm DeCotiis, Fitzpatrick & Cole. Wisler was a leading attorney on the failed Meadowlands Encap golf and resort project that has been the subject of investigation for more than two years.
The indictment alleges that Wisler paid Bryant nearly $200,000 in bribes for favorable votes on projects for a private equity firm that Wisler represented, including the Encap golf and resort, a proposed $1.2 billion redevelopment of Camden’s Cramer Hill neighborhood, and another known as Petty's Island in the Delaware River that included 600 acres of waterfront in Pennsauken.
The indictment does not name any other DeCotiis lawyer or the firm itself. Encap and its parent, North Carolina-based Cherokee Investment Partners, also are not named.
The indictment was handled by the U.S. Attorney in New York after the U.S. Attorney in New Jersey, Paul "What Corruption?' Fishman, recused himself. Fishman represented Encap in private practice before becoming U.S. Attorney, having been nominated to replace Chris Christie by Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez.
