A New Jersey borough councilman is behind bars after being charged in a case built around extortion and loan sharking. Identified in the reporting as John Elite, he has been in custody since being arrested at his Englishtown home on Friday, and instead of spending the weekend at home he was held in a cell at the Bergen County jail.
The arrest is striking given his standing in the community. According to the report, Elite won a seat as councilman last year, and the home where he was taken into custody sits just a few doors down from Borough Hall, the very building tied to the office he was elected to hold.
Prosecutors have leveled a set of serious charges against him. Elite is being charged with theft by extortion, corporate misconduct and usury, a combination of accusations that paints a picture of alleged financial crimes carried out alongside his public role rather than separate from it.
The usury charge is at the heart of the case. Usury is more commonly known as loan sharking, which is when someone is offered a loan carrying an exorbitantly high interest rate. The practice is illegal precisely because it traps borrowers in debt on terms far beyond what the law allows.
The state attorney general, Jennifer Davenport, laid out how the alleged scheme turned violent in its enforcement. According to the attorney general, Elite subsequently obtained the property and monies of victims by threatening to commit violent acts, using intimidation to collect on the debts at the center of the case.
Authorities also say the councilman leaned on a business to advance the operation. He is alleged to have misused his corporation, identified as Straighten Out Entertainment, to promote his criminal scheme, blurring the line between a legitimate company and the alleged extortion and lending activity.
For now, Elite remains in custody as the case moves forward, having been jailed since his arrest at the end of last week. The charges against an elected official, announced by the state's top prosecutor, place a sitting councilman at the center of an extortion and loan sharking case that is likely to draw close attention in his community.