New Details Revealed In Middlesex Mayor's Corruption Charges

MIDDLESEX BOROUGH, NJ — New details emerged this week in the charges against Middlesex borough Mayor Ron DiMura, who was indicted Monday, Dec. 16 on charges of theft and official misconduct.

DiMura is accused of stealing approximately $190,000 from various local political campaigns and using a local charity he runs — ostensibly to give scholarships to Middlesex High School graduates — to instead launder the money for his own personal gain, alleged the New Jersey attorney general's office.

DiMura, 63, whose term as mayor ends at the end of 2019, stepped down as Middlesex mayor on Tuesday of this week, a day after he was indicted.

For the past seven years, DiMura served as treasurer for the Middlesex Borough Democratic Campaign Committee as well as for a number of campaigns for candidates seeking local office in Middlesex borough. The indictment alleges that between January 2013 and June 2019, DiMura used his position as treasurer to steal approximately $190,000 by making purported donations to a local charity he runs. That charity is the Fellin-Medler Scholarship, which annually awards $1,000 to a graduating Middlesex High School senior, sources told MyCentralJersey.

Except the scholarship only paid students a small fraction of the funds, the AG says. Most of the money was allegedly instead funneled to DiMura’s personal bank account or a business account that DiMura controlled.

That's not all: The indictment further alleges DiMura stole more than $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, investigators say. Instead, he allegedly deposited the funds into his personal bank account.

In a pyramid scheme, he used some funds to pay back the investors, but most of them did not receive any of the promised interest and are still owed substantial amounts of their principal.

You can read the indictment against him here: https://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases19/DiMura_Indictment.pdf

The AG started investigating DiMura after getting a tip from the Election Law Enforcement Commission.

“As mayor and as a local party leader, DiMura was trusted in Middlesex Borough,’’ said Attorney General Gurbir Grewal. “But DiMura repeatedly betrayed that trust, we allege, by misappropriating funds, abusing his office, and using a charity to hide his actions. We are determined to hold officials accountable if they break the law and corruptly exploit their public positions for personal gain.”

DiMura is charged with the following criminal offenses in a nine-count state grand jury indictment handed up today in Superior Court:

1. Theft by Deception (2nd degree)
2. Misapplication of Entrusted Property (2nd degree)
3. Financial Facilitation of Criminal Activity (Money Laundering) (2nd degree)
4. Official Misconduct (2nd degree)
5. Theft by Deception (3rd degree)
6. Theft by Deception (2nd degree)
7. Official Misconduct (2nd degree)
8. Pattern of Official Misconduct (2nd degree)
9. Tampering with Public Records (3rd degree)

He is facing up to five to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $150,000.