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William Tambussi, a member of the Rutgers University Board of Governors, was indicted on racketeering charges Monday as part of a case brought by New Jersey’s attorney general against Democratic power broker George Norcross, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Tambussi is one of five associates named as defendants alongside Norcross in a corruption scheme that alleges the group extorted and threatened developers for financial gain. Court documents show Norcross is accused of “leading a criminal enterprise whose members and associates agreed the enterprise would extort others through threats and fear of economic and reputational harm and commit other criminal offenses to achieve the enterprise’s goals.”
In the aftermath of the indictment, the faculty union Rutgers AAUP-AFT (American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers) called for Tambussi to step down.
“Tambussi has to go,” Todd Wolfson, president of Rutgers AAUP-AFT said. “How can the Board of Governors claim to be legitimate in overseeing the university’s mission—including serving the people of Camden and New Jersey—when the person who’s supposed to represent Camden on the board stands accused of enriching himself at the expense of the city and its campus?”
The indictment describes Tambussi as “the long-time personal attorney” to Norcross. Tambussi also represented the City of Camden, New Jersey (and, unrelatedly, Donald Trump in the late 2000s). He is accused of being an “active participant in the Norcross Enterprise’s plot to use the City of Camden’s government to bring a condemnation action” against a developer whom the defendants are accused of extorting in a clash over property and development rights in Camden.
Tambussi told The Inquirer he was “astounded” by the charges.
Dana Redd, Camden Mayor from 2010 to 2017 and CEO of the Rowan University/Rutgers-Camden Board of Governors from 2018 to 2022, is also named in the indictment.
