Monmouth bribe attempt fetches probation

An Edison businessman who tried and failed to bribe a Monmouth County employee gets two years of probation and a five-year ban on bidding for publicly-paid work.

Madhu Rajan, 42, owner of Silverlands Services, Inc., was sentenced in Freehold today for his January guilty plea to a third-degree charge of bribery in official and political matters, according to the office of acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Chris Gramiccioni.

An added condition of his sentence is a five-year ban on public contract bids in New Jersey for any company in which Rajan holds an interest of five percent or more. Authorities did not disclose the number, or identities, of the affected businesses.

Rajan was completing the replacement of heating and air-conditioning units atop the county Special Services Building in June 2015. He admitted to investigators that he offered a county worker money for help in expedting a payment application, and to obtain documents regarding previous public bids.

The county worker reported the encounter to the Prosecutor's Office. Investigators said Rajan sent an associate to deliver the bribe, hidden in a children's coloring book. At that point, Rajan was placed under arrest.