When he was a federal prosecutor, Herbert J. Stern served as the personal attack dog of U.S. Sen. Clifford Case (R-NJ), his benefactor. Case was a vindictive and unpleasant man who used his strength in the Senate to get prosecutors who would do his bidding back in New Jersey.

At the 1968 Republican National Convention, the New Jersey delegates were pledged to “favorite son” Clifford Case. New Jersey State Republican Chairman Nelson Gross and Atlantic City Sen. Frank S. “Hap” Farley successfully broke the delegation open to deliver nearly half of the state’s delegates to Richard Nixon, netting the former V.P. the presidential nomination on the first ballot. Case was furious after he was humiliated by a televised poll of the delegates.

In 1973, Nelson Gross was indicted by U.S. Attorney Herbert Stern on a trumped-up charge of corruption involving party fundraising. Nelson Gross was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison, though he only served six months. Many years later, Gross would be murdered in a bizarre, unrelated act of violence.

Stern has remained a fixture in New Jersey’s political and legal community, profiting handsomely from his reputation as U.S. attorney and his connections to those still in power.

Stern and the Fat Man

Stern and the Fat Man

In 2005, former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie gave Herbert Stern and his law firm, Stern & Kilcullen, a $3 million no-bid contract to monitor the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Dec. 2005 as part of a deferred prosecution agreement after the institution admitted to committing Medicare fraud. Christie considers Stern a “mentor,” according to the New York Times.

A few months before he was appointed to monitor UMDNJ, Herbert Stern was working as a lawyer for Stryker Orthopedics, one of five orthopedics companies accused by Christie’s office of violating federal anti-kickback laws.

When Christie sent a subpoena to Stryker, Stern reportedly told Christie that his client felt the “industry was broken, it was part of the problem, and offered to help fix it.” This, according to Christie, represented “a stark difference from the approach the other four companies took” and contributed to the company’s more lenient sentence.

While the Stryker’s four competitors were given deferred prosecution agreements and agreed to pay a total of $310 million, Christie gave Stryker a nonprosecution agreement which meant the company did not have to pay civil fines.

Before leaving the U.S. Attorney’s office, Christie hired Samuel Stern, the son of Herbert Stern, to work as a federal prosecutor.

During his Republican primary campaign for governor, Chris Christie accepted $23,800 in campaign contributions from the principals and spouses of Stern & Kilcullen, the firm to which Christie had given a $3 million contract to monitor UMDNJ.

Herbert Stern and his wife each gave $3,400 to Chris Christie’s gubernatorial campaign, as did John Inglesino and his wife. Inglesino, a lawyer at Stern & Kilcullen, had served as Stern’s chief counsel in the UMDNJ case.

After the public became aware of the contributions given by Stern’s firm, Christie said he would no longer accept contributions from individuals he had appointed as federal monitors. One week later, Inglesino held a fundraiser for Christie which raised $100,000 for his campaign.

When confronted about the Inglesino fundraiser, Christie said that Inglesino “never raised any money” and was nothing more than a volunteer for his campaign. Inglesino was accused by Republican primary candidate Rick Merkt of attempting to bribe him and offering Merkt a “major position” to stay out of the race.

Former U.S. Attorney Frederick P. Lacey selected Herbert Stern to be his first assistant in 1969. When Lacey was appointed to be a federal judge, Stern replaced him as U.S. Attorney. In 1974, Stern joined Lacey on the bench, where Stern would remain until 1987 when he left to open his own firm.

Frederick Lacey was hired by drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2003 to “help diffuse the Justice Department’s investigation of the company,” which was related to an accounting scandal, because of Lacey’s relationship with Chris Christie, whose office was leading the investigation. The NYT has written that Christie regards Lacey as a “role model.”

When the investigation did not fall apart as hoped and Bristol-Myers was offered a deferred prosecution agreement, the company followed Christie’s advice and selected Lacey as its monitor. Christie then gave Lacey a no-bid contract worth millions of dollars to monitor Bristol-Myers, just a few months before he gave a hefty monitorship to Stern & Kilcullen.

The NYT writes that Lacey and his colleagues at LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae “became regular fixtures at Bristol-Myers, attending all manner of meetings.” At one point, Lacey used his staggering authority to dismiss Bristol-Myers CEO Peter Dolan.

The Washington Post writes:

“Bristol Chairman James D. Robinson III said in a conference call that the board unanimously agreed that Dolan had to go. Neither he, Lacey nor Christie would describe specifically what concerned Lacey enough to recommend Dolan’s termination.”

James D. Robinson III, who headed the search committee for Dolan’s replacement, resigned in 2008. Robinson and Robert T. Zito, Senior Vice President at Bristol-Myers, each cut $3,400 checks to Chris Christie’s primary campaign.