The Governmental Corruption and White Collar Crime Unit of the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office is charged with the responsibility of investigating and prosecuting acts of corruption by governmental officials and a variety of criminal activities generally characterized as white collar crimes. In the area of governmental corruption, this unit investigates and prosecutes misconduct by government officials and employees at county and municipal levels, including theft, forgery, bribery, embezzlement, perjury, and official misconduct.

The unit also investigates and prosecutes allegations of white collar criminal activity. These areas involve offenses such as theft by deception, forgery, embezzlement, extortion, criminal usury, perjury and false wearing. The unit endeavors to investigate all allegations of such activity, focusing primarily on those which have a significant impact on individual victims or on the public at large. Investigations frequently involve targets such as police officers, court personnel, government officials, owners and operating officers of corporations, and bankers. Consumer fraud, employee embezzlements, bank frauds, audio/video pirating, election law violations and police corruption cases also comprise a large portion of the unit’s work. Recently, identity theft cases and internet crimes have become common, requiring the unit to become deeply involved with high-tech methods of identifying and prosecuting such crime.

Lastly, all investigations and prosecutions in the unit emphasize asset location and recovery for the victim(s).