On July 29, 2010, Ferriero's conviction was vacated by U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler, citing a recent ruling by the United States Supreme Court narrowing the scope of honest services fraud.
However, in 2013, a federal grand jury once again indicted Joe Ferriero again on charges of bribery, kickback and shakedown schemes, including a plot to extort $1.7 million from a prior developer of the New Jersey Meadowlands retail and entertainment project now known as American Dream Meadowlands.
[4] From the time he was three years old, young Ferriero was the mascot of Hose Company #3, where his father served as a volunteer firefighter.
In March 1985 at age 28 Ferriero ran as a Democrat for the State Assembly in the 39th legislative district in a special election against Elizabeth "Lisa" Randall.
[13] In addition, Ferriero created the Latin American Democratic organization and worked to elect the first Hispanic freeholder.
Ferriero also played a major role in the election of Democratic Governors James McGreevey and Jon Corzine.
Critics have noted that Ferriero's position as County Chairman gave him extensive power to select hundreds of employees in county government and to award no-bid contracts, many of whom have been involved in pay to play, receiving contracts in exchange for contributions.
In 2007, Ferriero endorsed a ticket of Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes for Senate, and Cid Wilson and Ken Zisa for Assembly, to face off in a primary challenge against incumbents Weinberg, and her Assembly running mates Valerie Huttle and Gordon M.
[15] In the face of flagging poll figures for his slate, an April 2007 deal was brokered by Governor of New Jersey Jon Corzine, in which Ferriero pulled his three candidates off the ballot and agreed that he and the county party organization would support Weinberg and her running mates.
The indictment alleged that Ferriero and Oury had concealed ownership of a grant-writing business that did business with Bergenfield, one of several municipalities that had Oury on the payroll as municipal attorney; that they had used their political clout to steer $1.4 million in grants to that borough, then collected fees from their company; and that they had used the United States mail to execute this scheme to defraud Bergenfield of money, property, and Oury's honest services.
Ferriero's indictment was dismissed in July 2010 by U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Chesler.
Dennis Oury, Ferriero's co-defendant, plea bargained with the prosecution prior to the trial; on September 29, 2009, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and a reduced charge of failing to file a tax return.
Prosecutors opened by explaining the allegations against Ferriero to the jury, also informing them that Oury had pleaded guilty two days beforehand.
He also noted that Ferriero had paid taxes on his income from GGC where Oury had not in an attempt to further conceal his conflict of interest.
"[3] In his closing statement, Hayden asserted that the only individual whose conduct was improper was Oury, and that Ferriero had lacked an intent to defraud; he also asserted that, regarding the honest services fraud charge, the prosecution had failed to prove that Ferriero knew that his actions were resulting in Oury serving Bergenfield dishonestly.
As a result of a decision by the United States Supreme Court, Ferriero was cleared of all charges against him.
In September 2013, Ferriero was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of bribery, kickback and shakedown schemes.