{"id":2484859,"date":"2025-09-10T16:50:59","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T20:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nj-comptroller-publishes-report-on-norcross-insurance-group\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T16:56:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T20:56:31","slug":"nj-comptroller-publishes-report-on-norcross-insurance-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nj-comptroller-publishes-report-on-norcross-insurance-group\/","title":{"rendered":"NJ comptroller publishes report on Norcross insurance group"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnj-comptroller-publishes-report-on-norcross-insurance-group%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2484859&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The New Jersey Office of the state Comptroller, led by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-banking-nominee-wants-to-starve-companies-that-invest-in-oil-and-gas\/\" title=\"Biden Banking Nominee Wants To \u2018Starve\u2019 ... That Invest in Oil and Gas\">acting comptroller<\/a> Kevin Walsh, released an inquiry report accusing the insurance firm Conner Strong &#038; Buckelew and its affiliate PERMA Risk Management services-both connected to south Jersey Democratic figure George Norcross-of improperly controlling hundreds of local municipal and school board health insurance funds. The report alleges violations of conflict-of-interest rules and public contracting laws, claiming the companies acted as essentially one entity, sharing employees and leadership, and engaged in self-dealing by influencing contract awards that benefitted themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Conner Strong &#038; Buckelew,PERMA,and Norcross representatives strongly deny these claims,describing the report as full of inaccuracies and misunderstandings about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-gov-charlie-baker-spending-12m-to-resettle-afghans-in-massachusetts\/\" title=\"GOP Gov. Charlie Baker Spending M to Resettle Afghans in Massachusetts\">insurance markets<\/a>. The companies also called the investigation a baseless, biased assault. Several chairpersons of the involved health insurance funds echoed these denials, defending their operations and oversight.<\/p>\n<p>Walsh emphasized the importance of ethical conduct and legal compliance in managing public health insurance funds, especially given their coverage of over 100,000 public employees. This inquiry adds to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/epstein-trump-and-the-scandal-that-wont-disappear\/\" title=\"Epstein, Trump, and the scandal that won&#039;t disappear\">prior legal troubles<\/a> for norcross, who is currently on leave from his executive role following corruption and racketeering indictments that where dismissed but are currently under appeal.<\/p>\n<p>In response to the comptroller&#8217;s investigation, counsel for Conner Strong &#038; Buckelew and PERMA requested the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the integrity of Walsh&#8217;s office. <br \/> <!DOCTYPE html><br \/>\n<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><html><body><\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">New Jersey acting comptroller publishes investigation report on George Norcross insurance group<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2226280\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/new-jersey\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">New Jersey<\/a> Office of the State Comptroller alleged that hundreds of the state&rsquo;s local municipal and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/education\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">school<\/a> board <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/health-insurance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">health insurance<\/a> funds were &ldquo;effectively taken over by a private, for-profit company&rdquo; in an investigation report released Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The state&rsquo;s acting comptroller, Kevin Walsh, targeted insurance firm Conner Strong &amp; Buckelew &mdash; tied to South Jersey Democratic philanthropist George Norcross &mdash; and an affiliate company, PERMA Risk Management Services, in the report. Walsh, appointed by Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nj.gov\/comptroller\/news\/2025\/20250909.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">alleges<\/a> the companies violated conflict-of-interest rules and public contracting laws.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/3798720\/california-great-place-to-do-business-newsom-donors\/\">California is a great place to do business &mdash; for Newsom&rsquo;s donors<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/investigations\/3795698\/boston-defied-200-ice-detainers-federal-lawsuit\/\">Boston has released more than 200 illegal immigrants, defying ICE detention requests<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/3796794\/peter-navarro-doj-decision-drop-his-case-without-explanation\/\">Navarro accuses DOJ of cop-out in decision to drop his case without explanation<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Conner Strong &amp; Buckelew, PERMA, and representatives of Norcross denied the allegations. In a press release, the insurance firm called the report &ldquo;riddled with lies, falsehoods, and blatant inaccuracies.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Dan Fee, a spokesman for Norcross, called the report &ldquo;rife with factual inaccuracies and evidences a fundamental lack of understanding of the issues, here how insurance markets work,&rdquo; in a statement. &ldquo;The Comptroller sees improprieties despite state HIFs having undergone regular reviews and audits by both the Departments of Banking &amp; Insurance and Community Affairs without issue for three decades.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The comptroller&rsquo;s investigation report focuses on three HIFs, which provide benefits to over 100,000 employees of New Jersey municipal governments and school boards: the Southern New Jersey Regional Employee Benefits Fund, the Schools Health Insurance Fund, and the Municipal Reinsurance Health Insurance Fund. The office reviewed contracts from the three HIFs from 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;What OSC found in reviewing these contracts was deeply concerning: violations of public contracting laws; improper efforts to steer contracts to preferred vendors; longstanding, undisclosed conflicts of interest; and the use of a fake public entity to attract business,&rdquo; the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nj.gov\/comptroller\/reports\/2025\/20250909.shtml#section3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report<\/a> alleges. <\/p>\n<p>Walsh&rsquo;s report alleges that Conner Strong &amp; Buckelew and PERMA presented as independent companies when they are &ldquo;effectively the same business operating under two names,&rdquo; as they share employees and leadership.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;In many cases, CSB and PERMA help write the rules for how a contract will be awarded&mdash;and then compete for and win that same contract. These are classic examples of conflicts of interest, in which a company both influences the decision-making process and stands to benefit from it by steering the contract to itself,&rdquo; the report says.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;There is no clearer conflict of interest than when a company writes the [request for proposal], reviews the bids, and then steers the contract to itself,&rdquo; Walsh said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nj.gov\/comptroller\/news\/2025\/20250909.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">statement<\/a>. &ldquo;What makes this worse is that the vendor concealed from the State and its public entity clients that it was operating on all sides of contracting processes that are supposed to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dem-gov-accused-of-misusing-taxpayer-funds-to-fight-sexual-assault-claim\/\" title=\"Dem Gov Accused of Misusing Taxpayer ... to Fight Sexual Assault Claim\">protect taxpayer funds<\/a>.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Conner Strong &amp; Buckelew and PERMA put out a joint press release calling the investigation a &ldquo;year-long, baseless assault&rdquo; on the companies, their employees, and the HIFs.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The OSC&rsquo;s report falsely claims the Funds operate with little oversight, insulting the work of volunteer Fund Commissioners and exposing the OSC&rsquo;s bias. What began as a routine review of RFPs for [third-party administrator] services secretly morphed into a full-scale fishing expedition, complete with fabricated interpretations of state law. Counsel for the Funds has repeatedly shown that OSC&rsquo;s claims are false, yet they have been ignored,&rdquo; the statement reads.<\/p>\n<p>The chairpersons of six New Jersey HIFs, including those named in the report, also released a statement condemning the investigation. The chairmen call Walsh&rsquo;s allegations in the report &ldquo;false and unfounded,&rdquo; further saying they &ldquo;reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of how joint insurance funds operate and why they have been successful for New Jersey taxpayers.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;At a time when more public entities are relying on health insurance funds to provide coverage, it&rsquo;s critically important that the State ensure insurance funds and vendors who <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >receive taxpayer money act ethically<\/a>, avoid conflicts of interest, and comply fully with the law,&rdquo; Walsh said.<\/p>\n<p>The comptroller investigation is not the first round of allegations against the Democratic power broker. <\/p>\n<p>Norcross is currently on a <a href=\"https:\/\/newjerseyglobe.com\/fr\/norcross-takes-leave-of-absence-from-insurance-firm-while-he-fights-indictment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">leave of absence<\/a> from his role as Executive Chairman at Conner Strong &amp; Buckelew, which he took after New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin indicted him and five codefendants on corruption and racketeering charges.<\/p>\n<p>Platkin&rsquo;s 13-count indictment <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/3252920\/republicans-turn-next-year-governor-battle-party-2024-success\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">alleged<\/a> Norcross and the codefendants sought to exert influence over public officials to illegally obtain property rights on the Camden waterfront and collect millions in tax credits. The defendants denied the allegations.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Peter Warshaw <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/02\/26\/corruption-indictment-against-new-jersey-power-broker-george-norcross-is-tossed-00206192\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dismissed<\/a> the charges against Norcross and the codefendants in February.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/3795560\/trump-agenda-corners-democratic-leaders-states-rights\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TRUMP&rsquo;S AGENDA CORNERS DEMOCRATIC LEADERS TO EMBRACE STATES&rsquo; RIGHTS<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Platkin <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/george-norcross-case-new-jersey-prosecutors-appeal-dismissal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">appealed<\/a> the case following Warshaw&rsquo;s dismissal decision, saying in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.njoag.gov\/attorney-general-matthew-j-platkins-statement-on-norcross-decision\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">statement<\/a> that he &ldquo;won&rsquo;t back down.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Regarding Walsh&rsquo;s investigation, Deborah Gramiccioni, counsel for Conner Strong &amp; Buckelew and PERMA, submitted a request for Murphy to appoint a special counsel to investigate the comptroller&rsquo;s office under Walsh for integrity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script> <\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NJ acting comptroller releases report on Norcross insurance group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3976,"featured_media":2484860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AP24169662151323-Norcross.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[63054,63055,63052,63053],"class_list":["post-2484859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-insurance-report","tag-new-jersey-audit","tag-nj-comptroller","tag-norcross-insurance-group"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AP24169662151323-Norcross.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3976"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2484859"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2484863,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484859\/revisions\/2484863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2484860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2484859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2484859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2484859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}