Prominent New jersey insurance, development and civic leader George Norcross III has filed a $100 million defamation lawsuit against the Philadelphia Inquirer and one of its editors for allegedly helping to orchestrate a bogus criminal case against him that was unanimously thrown out of court.
Norcross claims he spent nearly two years “under the cloud of a politically motivated investigation” undertaken by former New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and facilitated by the Inquirer and its justice system
editor Nancy Phillips. Norcross alleges that Phillips supplied law enforcement with false and fabricated notes from a 2019 interview with a Norcross associate and th
e Inquirer regularly published articles that portrayed him in a bad light as part of a conspiracy to “destroy his life, get him arrested and charged with serious crimes.”
Filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, the $100 million suit brings claims of defamation, false light, infliction of emotional distress, abuse of process, and conspiracy. The Inquirer and Phillips have not commented on the lawsuit. The Inquirer has a large circulation in New Jersey.
Norcross is a well-known business executive, philanthropist, and Democratic political influencer in the state who has advocated for the revitalization of Ca
mden and its waterfront. He was the executive chair of the insurance agency Conner Strong & Buckelew and chaired the board of trustees for Cooper University Health Care-MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper.
The lawsuit maintains that Phillips and the Inquirer facilitated the 2024 indictment by Platkin that accused Norcross and five others of running a criminal racke
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teering enterprise from 2012 to 2024. Platkin’s indictment alleged that Norcross Enterprises used coercion, extortion, and other criminal acts to tailor legislation to serve its interests, obtain property and property rights on the Cam
den waterfront, collect as much as $240 million in government-issued tax credits, and control and influence government officials including a former mayor of Camden.
Norcross pleaded not guilty and sought to have the charges dismissed. At the time, his lawyers characterized the indictment as a “crime thriller without a crime” as it sought to turn routine politics and everyday business negotiations undertaken to revitalize the Camden waterfront into crimes of extortion, racketeering, kickbacks and bribery.
“Although the indictment exceeds 100 pages and asserts over a dozen counts, it still fails to properly allege a single crime,” the defense asserted.
On February 26, 2025, the trial court threw out the indictment. The judge said that prosecutors had failed to show that Norcross’ actions were criminal or unlawful. Earlier this year, the Appellate Division unanimously affirmed the dismissal and the state declined to appeal, fully clearing Norcross of the charges.
