Bonaccorso, 64, of Clark, New Jersey, was sentenced on February 7, 2025 to three years of probation and fined $15,000 by New Jersey Superior Court Assignment Judge Lisa Miralles Walsh, presiding in Union County. The court’s sentence was consistent with the terms of a plea agreement Bonaccorso reached with the State.

The former mayor previously pleaded guilty on January 10, 2025, to a two-count accusation charging him with conspiring to commit official misconduct (3rd degree) and forgery (4th degree).

As part of the plea agreement resolving the case, the mayor as well as his landscaping and underground storage tank company, Bonaccorso & Son LLC, also agreed to a five-year ban on bidding for public contracts, entering into any public contracts, or conducting business with the State or its political subdivisions. Additionally, they are barred for three years from conducting, or contracting to conduct, any storage tank removals for any private commercial or residential property owners.

“The former mayor misused taxpayer-funded resources in Clark to benefit and enrich himself at residents’ expense,” said Attorney General Platkin. “This successful prosecution by OPIA’s Corruption Bureau ensures he will be unable to ever again abuse his authority. We will continue to hold accountable anyone who abuses the public trust no matter how powerful they may be.”

“Today’s sentence comes after former mayor Bonaccorso pleaded guilty to two serious crimes related to his abuse of office,” said Drew Skinner, Executive Director of OPIA. “The career prosecutors in our office are committed to ensuring justice is done and that no one is above the law.”

OPIA charged Bonaccorso on November 20, 2023 after a Corruption Bureau investigation found that, while acting in his official capacity as the mayor, Bonaccorso operated his oil tank-removal business out of his township office utilizing municipal resources. He stored and maintained the records for the business at the mayor’s office, used township computers, fax machines and other equipment, and directed or used township employees to perform duties while those employees were working for and being paid by the township, solely for the purpose of running his business.

During the investigation, OPIA also discovered that the defendant and his company, Bonaccorso & Son, fraudulently used an engineer’s name, license number, as well as, in many cases, forged the engineer’s signature on permit applications submitted to municipalities for tank removals — knowing the engineer was neither supervising nor in any way involved in those projects, and without any legally required tank inspections actually taking place at the job sites. Neither Bonaccorso nor his company had the necessary underground-storage-tank-removal license required to do such work.

A review of permit applications submitted by Bonaccorso and his company revealed that Bonaccorso misrepresented to municipalities that the engineer was the on-site supervisor of the removal work, as required by New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) regulations, for all of the tank removals.

New Jersey law prohibits any individual from doing work on unregulated heating-oil tank systems unless the individual is certified or working under the immediate, on-site supervision of a person who is certified. NJDEP rules state that whether a tank is removed or abandoned-in-place, the job must be conducted by a contractor certified for underground storage tank closure, who is working for a closure-certified firm.

The investigation revealed Bonaccorso arranged to have the engineer obtain a storage-tank license and insurance, and Bonaccorso directly paid to maintain both. The value of the removal jobs associated with the fraudulent permits submitted by Bonaccorso between 2017 and 2023 amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The plea was handled by OPIA Corruption Bureau Co-Director Jeffrey J. Manis and Corruption Bureau Deputy Chief Frank L. Valdinoto, under the supervision of OPIA Executive Director Skinner. Attorney General Platkin also thanked the New Jersey Department of the Treasury, Division of Taxation, Office of Criminal Investigation, and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for their assistance and valuable contributions to the investigation.

Defense attorney:

Robert Stahl and Andrew Olesnycky, of Stahl Gasiorowski Criminal Defense Lawyers P.C., Westfield