Controversial OPIA prosecutor sent to insurance fraud office

Another failed prosecutor from the embattled Office of Public Integrity and Accountability has been reassigned.

Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Manis, who had served as director of the OPIA corruption bureau, is now the deputy insurance fraud prosecutor.  That puts him in the number two position behind Bernard Cooney, who was tapped for the prosecutorial post in May by Gov. Mikie Sherrill.

His departure from the problem-plagued OPIA had been in motion for about two months; as of May 15, Manis’ name was no longer on the file for any OPIA cases already filed with the courts.

Manis announced his own appointment via a LinkedIn post two days ago.

“I’m very excited to join the OIFP team and for the opportunity to work with and support Prosecutor Cooney and OIFP’s talented and dedicated team of attorneys, investigators, analysts and staff as they aggressively root out and prosecute healthcare fraud and insurance fraud, and work to keep insurance affordable for New Jersey’s many hardworking, law-abiding residents and their families,” Manis said.

His career took a nosedive in 2024 when Superior Court Judge Joseph Paone dismissed an indictment against a prominent Lakewood rabbi, Osher Eisemann, ending a nearly decade-long prosecution.  Paone found that the New Jersey Attorney General’s office failed to make its case that Eisemann had committed a crime.  The dismissal came after the state rested and the jury was excused.

The Eisemann case led to Manis being sidelined from the state’s prosecution of Democratic powerbroker George Norcross.  Instead, the OPIA brought in Eric Gibson, a former assistant Philadelphia district attorney and assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to jump Manis in line.

The Lakewood rabbi was first convicted of money laundering and corporate misconduct in 2019, but in 2022, Paone vacated the conviction and ordered a new trial after determining that the state had information that would have exonerated Eisemann but did not share it with the rabbi’s attorney.

Prosecutors indicted Eisemann in 2017 on money laundering and corporate misconduct charges in 2019, but Paone vacated the conviction and set a new trial after determining that Deputy Attorney General John Nicodemo had information that would have exonerated Eisemann that the state did not share with the rabbi’s attorney.  Paone’s decision to dismiss the first case was appealed to the appellate division and then to the New Jersey Supreme Court without success.

Manis worked in the attorney general’s office as deputy chief of the corruption bureau from 2008 to 2019 before becoming an assistant U.S. Attorney.  He returned to state government in 2023 to join the OPIA.