NY Computer Recycler Pleads Guilty to Receiving Illegal Payments

The state of New Jersey’s Attorney General Anne Milgram announced that Jonathan Nappa, the owner of the computer recycling company Bruin Computer Trading LLC, pleaded guilty to offering illegal cash payments to a former employee in a New Jersey state government warehouse in return for special treatment in state auctions of surplus computer equipment.

The announcement noted that Nappa and his company pleaded guilty to an accusation charging him with third-degree offering an unlawful benefit to a public servant for official behavior. Bruin Computer pleaded guilty to second-degree offering an unlawful benefit to a public servant for official behavior.

In pleading guilty, Nappa admitted that he paid $1,600 to William Gawroski, a former employee in the Department of Treasury’s First Avenue Warehouse in Hamilton, in exchange for Gawroski revealing which lots of surplus computer equipment being auctioned by the state had more valuable equipment in them. Gawroski supervised the loading of equipment onto pallets by Department of Corrections inmates and Juvenile Justice Commission residents. One trailer load of pallets formed a lot. Gawroski pleaded guilty in 2008 to an official misconduct charge.

Under their plea agreements, Nappa and Bruin Computer must pay the state $46,000, representing the estimated profits the company made on the computer equipment it purchased in the state auctions. The state will recommend that Nappa be sentenced to a term of probation. Judge Billmeier scheduled sentencing for March 11.

Bruin Computer will be barred for 10 years from doing business with any government entity in New Jersey, while Nappa, and any other company in which he has a substantial interest, will be barred for five years. Bruin Computer could face a criminal fine of up to $150,000, and Nappa could face a criminal fine of up to $15,000.