Tinton Falls ex-highway official sentenced for mail fraud

The onetime Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) official from Tinton Falls, who admitted his role in a scheme that drove federal funds to companies run by his ex-wife and her father, heads to prison for 21 months.

Lawrence F. Cullari, 43, was sentenced in a Trenton federal courtroom for his guilty plea to one count of mail fraud, according to information from the office of New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman. He was also fined $20,000 and ordered to serve supervised release fo three years.

According to details filed in the case, Cullari served as assistant administrator of FHWA's New Jersey division from 2010 to 2013. He also ran a private consulting and engineering firm, Dencore Consulting, owned by his former wife. Her father owned a Middletown engineering company that created mechanical, plumbing and electrical designs.

Cullari admitted devising a plan with his father-in-law to use the Middletown firm to obtain federally-funded work for Dencore from the Rutgers Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (Rutgers CAIT) and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).

Prosecutors said that between May 2006 and June 2013, Cullari prepared bids and proposals that were submitted by his father-in-law's company to Rutgers CAIT and NJIT.

When the firm won projects, authorities said, Cullari completed affadavits and reports indicating that the Middletown firm had completed the work. His father-in-law kept part of the federal money and transferred the rest to Dencore, authorities said.