NEWARK, NJ—A former contractor of the Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corporation (NWCDC) today admitted his role in a bribery and kickback scheme involving an employee and consultant of the NWCDC, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

James Porter, 78, of East Orange, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares to an information charging him with one count of conspiring with Donald Bernard Sr., a former employee and consultant of the NWCDC, and others, to defraud the NWCDC and one count of tax evasion.

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

Between October 2008 and April 2013, Porter conspired with Bernard to provide Bernard and others with a stream of concealed, undisclosed kickbacks in exchange for Bernard’s assistance in securing business opportunities and payments to two companies operated by Porter: Jim P. Enterprises LLC (JPE) and New Beginnings Environmental Services (NBES), a company in which Bernard was also a partner. Both JPE and NBES purported to perform landscaping, snow removal, clean-up and sign posting services to the NWCDC from 2008 through 2013. JPE received payments from the NWCDC totaling more than $500,000 and NBES received approximately $290,000 from the NWCDC. Both companies submitted invoices to the NWCDC that were fraudulently inflated to cover kickback payments to Bernard and billed for some services, such as landscaping and snow removal, which were never performed...