At the center of the criminal case against longtime Democratic Party boss George Norcross is a fight with a real estate developer who owns a luxury loft building on the Camden, New Jersey waterfront. The indictment says a lawyer who worked for both Norcross and the city of Camden used his role with the city to coerce and bully the developer on Norcross’ behalf.

The state attorney general indicted the lawyer, Bill Tambussi, on Monday along with Norcross, former Camden Mayor Dana Redd, Norcross’ brother Philip and two business partners on charges of racketeering, extortion and financial crimes.

The inclusion of Tambussi, who is the Norcross brothers’ longtime personal attorney and also represents dozens of government entities, highlights what ethics experts say is a serious shortcoming in New Jersey’s ability to flag and deal with conflicts of interest: He was able to represent clients on different sides of a transaction for many years.

“When the same lawyer is representing the individual who allegedly stands to benefit from the work of various government agencies, and also represents those various government agencies, we have the potential for the toxic collision of big money and politics and decision-making,” said Paula Franzese, a law professor at Seton Hall University who served in several government ethics roles during two gubernatorial administrations.

“Those entities, public entities, are charged with representing the best interests of the municipalities or counties or townships that they are sworn to represent. When the agency and the client have commingled interest, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, for a lawyer to serve essentially two masters, two bosses,” Franzese said.

Norcross has been the leader of a Democratic political machine in South Jersey for three decades. The WNYC podcast “Dead End: A New Jersey Political Murder Mystery” reported on Norcross’ power and his influence over elected officials across the state. He is often described as the most powerful unelected person in New Jersey. And Tambussi is often in the middle of those relationships in his role as personal attorney to Norcross.

Norcross and Tambussi attended a press conference held by Attorney General Matthew Platkin on Monday to announce the indictments. Both men say they are innocent of all the charges and are victims of a political vendetta by Platkin.

The indictment describes a conflict Norcross had in 2016 with Carl Dranoff, a real estate developer who owns a building of luxury lofts on the Camden waterfront. Norcross wanted to build an office tower on the Delaware River. But Dranoff held an easement that prohibited anyone from blocking the sweeping views of downtown Philadelphia.

When he refused to give up that easement, according to the indictment, Norcross yelled at him: “If you f— this up, I’ll f— you up like you’ve never been f—ed up before. I’ll make sure you never do business in this town again.”

When Camden officials stopped returning Dranoff’s calls and held up permits on other development projects, he sued the city. Camden countersued. And the city’s lawyer in both suits was Tambussi, of Brown & Connery LLP.

Regardless of the outcome of the criminal charges, the indictment provides a window into how New Jersey’s pay-to-play laws have not shut off the spigot of taxpayer money flowing to the politically connected.

As a partner at Brown & Connery, Tambussi declared $6.8 million in government contracts in 2023, according to pay-to-play financial disclosures filed with the state’s Election Law Enforcement Commission. He held that role while working for Norcross, whose vast fundraising operation and influence helped place officials in positions throughout the state, particularly in Camden. In 2016, the year he was representing both the city and George Norcross in the dispute with Dranoff, Tambussi’s firm provided legal work to 20 separate government entities in Camden alone, worth more than $1.6 million.

But those financial disclosures didn’t raise any red flags to prevent one law firm from representing so many potentially competing interests. And that alarms Franzese, the ethics expert.

She said she is frustrated because she believes New Jersey is moving in the wrong direction when it comes to improving enforcement and transparency about government contracts. She said ultimately, that affects whether and how well services like affordable housing, food for the hungry or recreation programs are provided.

“Monies allocated for the public must be spent for the public. We need transparency and [better] reporting and disclosure requirements,” Franzese said.

The state Legislature and Gov. Phil Murphy recently overhauled the Open Public Records Act, making it harder for the public to obtain government documents.

“We need the opportunity to use heightened mechanisms of connectivity, the internet, websites, public recording, watchdog websites, to understand and follow the money,” Franzese said.

Franzese said lawyers are ethically bound to declare conflicts of interest when they represent clients who have business with each other. But the problems in New Jersey go deeper than just ethical lapses by individuals, she said.

“They flag the need for more stringent conflicts-of-interest laws and enforcement mechanisms as a matter of state statute and imperative,” Franzese said. “It’s one thing for the rules of professional conduct to provide some clarity, but it’s another to be without a strong enforcement mechanism.”

Franzese said the state needs one central ethics agency responsible for oversight of the legislative and executive branches of state government, as well as local entities. She also said the state does not have a centralized database that would compile all the different disclosure reporting that is required at various levels of government, and have it be run by the State Ethics Commission, which administers and enforces New Jersey’s conflict of interest law.

The indictment of the Norcross brothers, Tambussi and others alleges the defendants created a criminal enterprise that used political influence and power to achieve its goals — including influencing the creation of a state program that sent hundreds millions of dollars in tax breaks to businesses associated with George Norcross. A WNYC and ProPublica investigation in 2019 found $1.1 billion in tax breaks from the program went to George Norcross’ own insurance brokerage, his business partnerships and charitable affiliations, and clients of the law and lobbying firms of Philip Norcross.

Tambussi has not responded to a request for comment on the government contracts he holds.

A legal services contract with Tambussi was on the South Jersey Transportation Authority board’s agenda on Wednesday, and Politico reported the contract was approved without comment. That agency is involved in a separate indictment the state attorney general unsealed last week, which accused two of its board members of political retaliation and corruption for allegedly blocking payments to an engineering firm in a feud with someone referred to only as “South Jersey Party Leader.” That’s widely presumed to be George Norcross.

The South Jersey Transportation Authority has not returned a request for information about the contract with Tambussi.