SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 2012

http://www.northjersey.com/news/North_Bergen_prosecutor_faces_money-laundering_charges.html?c=y&page=2

A North Jersey attorney who serves as a municipal prosecutor in North Bergen was arrested Friday on money-laundering charges connected to an alleged association with drug distributors, according to Bergen County officials.

Marc Macri, 44, of Edgewater, was brought into the Bergen County Jail at 9:20 p.m. Friday after being booked on three counts of money laundering, jail officials said. He stayed overnight and posted $50,000 bail at 10 a.m. Saturday, they added.

“The charges are criminal facilitation and bank structuring in connection with his association with large-scale drug distributors,” said Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli, who said more details would be released later Saturday evening.

Macri lives at the St. Moritz high-rise off Gorge Road in Edgewater. Police in that borough said they had been notified that the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office would be executing a warrant Friday night but said they were not involved.

Macri shares office space in Fort Lee with Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, who said he first heard the news Friday night and called Macri.

“I got a phone call that he was speaking to the police at his apartment,” Sokolich said. When he called Macri and asked if everything was OK, Macri responded that he would call Sokolich back.

Sokolich said he hadn’t heard from Macri since.

“But suffice it to say, I’m very concerned about it,” he said.

Sokolich said he has known Macri for between 15 and 20 years and shared office space with him for about seven years. Sokolich said he had no knowledge of what the charges were and said that no law-enforcement official had spoken to him.

Macri earns $53,000 as one of two municipal prosecutors in North Bergen, records show.

North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco could not be reached for comment on Saturday. But spokesman Phil Swibinski said that he had heard informally about the arrest. Once township officials receive formal confirmation Monday morning, Macri would be suspended without pay, he added.

Multiple messages left for Macri were not returned.