Former New Jersey state Sen. Wayne R. Bryant, who is already serving a four year sentence on a public corruption conviction, was indicted Monday in another case involving allegations that he took $192,000 in bribes to support some major building projects, authorities said.
Bryant, who represented New Jersey’s 5th District, was also an equity partner in a Cherry Hill law firm. Attorney Eric D. Wisler, who was also indicted in the case, was an equity partner at a Teaneck, N.J. firm.
In 2004, Wisler, who represented developers, arranged for Bryant’s firm to get an $8,000 per month retainer for legal fees and other costs that would help with the development projects in the New Jersey Meadowlands.
The payment fee was supposedly made to cover fees for legal work and other costs.
But authorities allege that the payments were bribes paid in exchange for official action that Bryant took in favor of the different redevelopment projects on behalf of Wisler and his clients, according to the indictment.
One of the projects included a proposed $1.2 billion redevelopment of Camden’s Cramer Hill neighborhood, which is in Bryant’s legislative district.
Bryant’s firm was paid approximately $192,000 in fees between August 2004 and August 2006, but no actual legal work took place under the retainer agreement, authorities alleged.
The indictment alleges that both Wisler and Bryant made an effort to hide the retainer agreement and they created fake invoices to try and show that Bryant’s firm was providing actual legal services.
The indictment charges Bryant and Wisler with bribery and mail fraud.
In 2008, Bryant was convicted of selling his office to get a low-work job at the School of Osteopathic Medicine in Camden to help pad his pension. In exchange, he agreed to use his influence to help the school get $10.5 million in state grants.
