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Middlesex Mayor Ronald J. DiMura, 64, pleaded guilty to theft by deception, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said on Thursday.
DiMura's term as mayor ended in December 2019.
He entered his guilty plea before Superior Court Judge Benjamin S. Bucca in Middlesex County.
The state has recommended that DiMura be sentenced to seven years in state prison, Grewal said. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan.. 15, 2021.
DiMura will be barred from ever holding public office and employment in New Jersey.
The former mayor was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $83,372, and return the remainder of the money he stole, Grewal said.
“DiMura exploited his position as mayor and his role as a local party leader for his personal gain, betraying borough residents and party members who placed their trust in him,” Grewal said.
Over the past 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.
The state investigation found 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, Grewal said.
DiMura also 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, Grewal said.
iMura did not make any investments with the money, but deposited the funds into his personal bank account or the business account he controlled, the attorney general said.
Finally, DiMura used his mayoral post 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, according to Grewal.
DiMura also filed false or incomplete Local Government Ethics Law Financial Disclosure Statements that failed to disclose the funds he received from the charity.
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