Wild NJ Political Race Stars CCO

We haven’t revisited the subject of compliance officers running for public office in a while, but a state Senate race in New Jersey has piqued our interest. After all, how often do you see compliance officers, strippers, and leprechauns riding around on tricycles all mentioned in one story?

Those are just some of the characters figuring in a battle unfolding this month over the Republican nomination for state Senate District 4 in South Jersey. For our purposes as cheerleaders of the compliance profession, the protagonist is Chris Del Borrello, chief compliance officer for a family-run business of check-cashing and real estate concerns. 

What’s going on? As described in an article posted by Politico.com on Monday, Del Borrello, a former member of the Washington Township Council, is fighting for the nomination against Nick DeSilvio, a commissioner in Gloucester County, N.J. DeSilvio has latched onto the somewhat sketchy past of Del Borrello family businesses as a line of attack against Del Borrello. 

Specifically, DeSilvio says the Del Borrello team “is led by a shady business owner with a history of renting out strippers and backed by Trenton political insiders,” according to a joint statement by DeSilvio and Assembly running mates Denise Gonzalez and Michael Clark.

The business is Tasteful Temptations, a now-defunct entertainment company that offered, ahem, “top-rated bachelor and bachelorette party specialists.” Or, if strippers weren’t quite what you needed for your social occasion, “lighten up your party by booking one of our novelty acts, such as our midget man dressed as a leprechaun riding in on a tricycle!” 

Alas, Tasteful Temptations went out of business sometime in the 2010s. DeSilvio says the operation actually was an escort service, but like any rock-ribbed Republican these days, he offers no evidence to support his accusation.

Del Borrello denies all of this. In the Politico story, he says Tasteful Temptations was owned by his brother Peter, who these days is a current Washington Township Council member. Peter Del Borrello is CEO of the Del Borrello Group, which is the family business of check-cashing stores and real estate concerns, where Chris Del Borrello is also chief compliance officer. Tasteful Temptations was registered to the same Philadelphia address as the Del Borrello Group.

“I never had any role or stake in [Tasteful Temptations,” Chris Del Borrello told Politico. “As far as I know, that company ceased operating almost a decade ago. I do not know when it dissolved.”

Aside from the stripper service that went out of business, Del Borrello has another family headache: half-brother Thomas Del Borrello, sentenced to a year in prison in 2021 for using the family check-cashing business for money-laundering. 

Now we’re getting closer to actual compliance program stuff, because this does sound like the sort of thing a compliance officer is supposed to prevent. Chris Del Borrello, however, says that he was attending a physician assistant program at Drexel University when his half-brother Thomas — who was serving as CCO at the time — broke the law.

Chris Del Borrello’s statement to Politico about it: 

“During that time Tom took some rogue actions as [chief compliance officer] that nearly bankrupted the company and ultimately landed him in jail. In 2016, I made the difficult decision to leave medical school and abandon a future in medicine, and come back and help my family through this difficult time. As the CCO since then, I have revamped our compliance department, and have returned our company to solvency, even turning our operations into an award-winning organization.” 

Anyway, the primary is June 6, and the race could be pivotal because District 4 is a must-win for Republicans if they want to wrestle control of the state Senate from Democrats this November. District 4 is up for grabs because incumbent Democrat state Sen. Fred Madden is retiring, and the seat now leans more Republican after the last round of redistricting.

Well, we’re all for compliance officers seeking public office, and track that trend as much as we can — even in New Jersey, where local politics falls somewhere between Thunderdome and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.