Former Middlesex Mayor Sentenced To Seven Years For Stealing $75K

MIDDLESEX BOROUGH, NJ — The former mayor of Middlesex borough was sentenced to prison Tuesday after he admitted to stealing more than $75,000 from various local political campaigns, announced the New Jersey Attorney General.

Ron DiMura, 64, whose term as mayor ended in December 2019, was sentenced to seven years in state prison by Superior Court Judge Benjamin Bucca in Middlesex County. He must begin serving his sentence within 60 days. DiMura resigned as Middlesex mayor after he was indicted last December. His indictment is here.

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said he wanted DiMura's unusually long prison sentence to serve as a message about corruption.

“DiMura exploited his role as a local party leader for his personal gain, betraying party members who placed their trust in him,” said Grewal. “I formed the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability to ensure, among other things, that public officials are held accountable if they abuse their power. This prison sentence reflects our commitment to that mission.”

As Patch previously reported, DiMura pleaded guilty on Aug. 13, 2020 to a charge of second-degree theft by deception. DiMura was also permanently barred from holding future public office and employment in New Jersey, he must pay $83,372 in restitution and must forfeit $163,582, representing the remainder of the funds he stole, said the AG.

DiMura was indicted in December 2019 after prosecutors were first tipped off after a referral from New Jersey's Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC).

DiMura's defense attorney was William Fetky, of New Brunswick.

For seven years, DiMura served as treasurer for the Middlesex Borough Democratic Campaign Committee as well as a number of campaigns for candidates seeking local office in Middlesex borough. The Attorney General says that between January 2013 and June 2019, DiMura used his position as treasurer for the campaigns and the party campaign committee to steal approximately $190,000 by making purported donations to a local charitable organization that he ran.

During the period in question, the nonprofit charity paid out only a small fraction of the funds for charitable purposes. It was determined that the remainder of the funds were funneled from the bank account of the charity to DiMura’s personal bank account or a business account that DiMura controlled.

In addition, the AG says that DiMura stole over $75,000 from various individual investors by creating the false impression that they were loaning him funds that he would invest on their behalf and that would generate large interest payments for them. In reality, DiMura did not make any investments with the money. Instead, he deposited the funds into his personal bank account. He used some funds to pay back the investors, but most of them did not receive any of the promised interest and are owed substantial amounts of their principal.

Finally, DiMura used his position as mayor to solicit $10,000 in donations to the local charity from a developer doing business with the borough, without disclosing that he intended to use the money for his personal benefit.

He filed false or incomplete Local Government Ethics Law Financial Disclosure Statements that failed to disclose the funds he received from the charity.

OPIA has a toll-free Tipline 1-844-OPIA-TIPS for the public to report corruption. The AG’s Office has an Anti-Corruption Reward Program that offers a reward of up to $25,000 for tips leading to a conviction for a crime involving public corruption. Information is posted at: http://nj.gov/oag/corruption/reward.html.

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