Video: Paterson, N.J. board tossed Pina’s ‘Old School 5’ plan in 2021

JERSEY INTEL EXCLUSIVE

First reported by Jersey Intel. The Paterson, N.J. Zoning Board of Adjustment threw out Cesar Pina’s “Old School 5” apartment application in September 2021, in the middle of the stretch when Pina now admits he was paying bribes to a city official to get the project heard and approved, the city’s own video of the meeting shows.

Pina, 48, of Franklin Lakes, N.J., the real estate influencer known online as “Flipping NJ,” pleaded guilty Thursday, Oct. 22, in federal court in Newark to wire fraud, money-laundering conspiracy and two bribery counts, U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer announced. The charging document says Pina gave a Paterson local official about $50,000 in cash and checks, plus real estate commissions, from about 2019 to 2022, in exchange for help with the board’s schedule and votes on the project at 385-391 Totowa Ave., a former public school building.

Jersey Intel matched the dates in that document with the City of Paterson’s own YouTube recordings of the board’s meetings. The 2020 and 2021 recordings show no vote to approve it. Instead, it was postponed at the developer’s own request at two meetings, carried for six months and then dismissed.

What Pina admitted

The four-count superseding information filed in U.S. District Court says that from about 2019 to 2022, Pina gave “a stream of concealed and undisclosed bribes” to a Paterson local official it calls only “Individual-2.” In return, the document says, the official agreed to “exert official influence over the ZBA’s scheduling” to get the Old School 5 applications onto the hearing agenda, and to influence board members “to vote in favor of” them.

According to the document, the payments included multiple cash and check payments totaling about $50,000, and real estate listings that earned the official, who is a licensed real estate agent, commissions on the sale of Pina’s properties. One commission check, deposited around March 7, 2022, was for about $18,132.

The document does not name the official, and Pina is the only person charged in it. Jersey Intel is not identifying the official.

What the city’s videos show

The Old School 5 property was sold by Paterson Public Schools in 2018 to a company called 383-391 Totowa Ave LLC, which the charging document says Pina controlled. A second Pina company, Taylor Five Apartments LLC, applied to the zoning board in 2019. The board planner said at the Sept. 9, 2021 meeting that his first report on the application was dated Feb. 11, 2020.

Oct. 22, 2020. The charging document says the application was on the board’s agenda for a meeting “in or around October 2020” but “was ultimately not heard,” and that Pina’s office assistant delivered a cash payment of about $2,500 to the official around that month. The city’s recording of the Oct. 22, 2020 meeting shows the application, then a plan to add three floors to the vacant three-story school for 61 apartments, being called. The developer’s lawyer asked for a postponement. He said the plans were being modified, more parking was needed and his client had “tax lien” issues that “are attempting to be resolved with the City of Paterson.” The board set a new date of March 11, 2021, on the record at that same meeting, describing it as a placeholder that could change if a special meeting opened up. The board secretary asked for the property’s tax and sewer statements before then, and the lawyer replied that “as of now there are outstanding liens which my client is attempting to address with the city.”

December 2020. The charging document says Pina had his assistant make another cash payment to the official around December 2020, after the official agreed to help get the application “back on the ZBA’s calendar.”

March 11, 2021. On March 3, 2021, the document says, the official texted Pina: “You’re on the agenda for March 11 on the Board.” At the March 11 meeting, the city’s video shows, the developer’s lawyer again asked to carry the matter. He said revised plans had “just come in,” there was a new lease for off-site parking, and there was a “tax issue” with the city that was “very close to being resolved,” adding that it was “being mediated.” The board noted the application had already been carried twice and pushed it to Sept. 9, 2021. The lawyer said he was “a little stunned by the number of months” but agreed to waive the legal deadline for the board to act.

Sept. 9, 2021. When the application came up again, the lawyer said more revisions were coming, off-site parking was still being worked out and the number of units might be lowered. The board’s attorney recommended dismissing it. “We can’t keep giving applications meetings and not conduct business,” he said. The planner said the delays were partly due to the pandemic and staffing problems in the city’s community development office, not only the applicant. Board members then voted to dismiss the application without prejudice, meaning it could be filed again. In the roll call on the city’s recording, every commissioner called voted yes. The video above shows the vote.

What came next

The application came back. The charging document says the board was scheduled to hear it again around Aug. 4, 2022, and that about a week earlier the official texted Pina, “already spoke with mr. Chairman about your appt,” and called the board’s chairman later that day. The city’s YouTube channel does not have a recording of an Aug. 4, 2022 zoning board meeting. The charging document does not accuse the chairman of wrongdoing.

A Dec. 5, 2024 board agenda lists a revised plan for a three-story building with 31 apartments and says the hearing was carried from June 3 and Oct. 17, 2024, to Feb. 6, 2025. NJ.com reported in October 2025 that, according to a lawsuit, the board dismissed the application at an April 3, 2025 hearing, and that Taylor Five sued Paterson in Passaic County Superior Court that May, arguing the project should be approved automatically because the board missed its legal deadline to act. Jersey Intel has not been able to confirm the status of that lawsuit.

“To date,” the charging document says, the applications “have appeared on various agendas of the ZBA, which has heard and considered the applications but has not yet approved them.”

What we still don’t know

• Who placed the application back on the agenda after the September 2021 dismissal, and when.
• Whether the tax liens and sewer charges the developer’s lawyer mentioned in 2020 and 2021 were ever paid, and how much they were.
• What the board did at the Aug. 4, 2022 meeting, and how members voted on April 3, 2025.
• Whether the city has reviewed how the official’s requests were handled.

Jersey Intel is requesting the board’s minutes and resolutions on the application (No. A2019-0008) and is seeking comment from the City of Paterson, the zoning board, and Pina’s defense lawyer, Gerald Krovatin of Newark. The City of Paterson’s website was unavailable to Jersey Intel on Friday morning. This story will be updated with any responses.

Pina’s plea was announced Thursday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey. The wire fraud and money-laundering conspiracy counts each carry up to 20 years in prison, the bribery count up to 10 years and the Travel Act count up to five years.