Former Jersey City Board of Education President Sudhan Thomas has admitted to accepting $35,000 in cash bribes in exchange for hiring a cooperating witness to serve as special counsel to the school board.
The New Jersey Attorney General’s office will recommend a sentence of five years in state prison, but the terms of the plea agreement permit Thomas to seek a lesser sentence when Superior Court Judge Peter Tober sentences him.
The plea deal also calls for Thomas to forfeit $10,000 in funds he received while committing the crime, pay a $30,000 public corruption profiteering penalty, and be subject to a lifetime ban on holding a public office or job. Thomas will also face a five-year ban on doing business with any New Jersey government entity.
Thomas was one of five minor individuals charged in 2019 as part of the state’s cooperation agreement with Matthew O’Donnell, a tax appeal attorney who has admitted to using straw donors to direct campaign contributions to those who would ultimately hire his law firm, O’Donnell McCord.
In June 2024, Thomas was sentenced to two years in federal prison as part of a plea deal on federal embezzlement charges. He admitted to stealing over $45,000 to pay off debts related to his school board campaign by writing checks from the Jersey City Employment and Training Program to others, but then cashing the checks himself.
