Former New Jersey Transit Official Admits Agreeing To Accept $8,000 Bribe

NEWARK, N.J. – A former New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit) official today admitted she agreed to accept an $8,000 bribe and power washing services in connection with a snow removal contract, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Donna Schiereck, 56, of Jackson, N.J., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge William H. Walls in Newark federal court to an information charging her with one count of agreeing to accept a bribe.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

From September 2012 to December 2012, Schiereck was a supervisor at NJ Transit.  Schiereck agreed to accept $8,000 in exchange for her assistance with maintaining snow removal work for a Lakewood, N.J., company. She also sought and received free power washing services from the company in return for her official assistance.

The bribery count to which Schiereck pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 9, 2014.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford; and the N.J. State Police, under the direction of Col. Joseph R. Fuentes, superintendent of the state police, for the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea. He also thanked N.J. Attorney General’s Office, under the direction of Acting Attorney General John Hoffman, and Eli Honig, director of the N.J. Division of Criminal Justice, for their work on the investigation.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Luria of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Special Prosecutions Division in Newark and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael A. Monahan, chief of the Financial and Computer Crimes Bureau, Division of Criminal Justice, N.J. Office of the Attorney General.

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Defense counsel: David A. Schwartz Esq., Eatontown, N.J.

Schiereck, Donna Information