RECORD FINE FOR PARKLAND DESTROYER - 23 March, 2005

Man to pay $2 million and apologize for axing trees to build tennis court
Wednesday, March 23, 2005

BY ALEXANDER LANE
Star-Ledger Staff

A wealthy Bergen County homeowner who chopped down more than 600 trees on public parkland so he could build a tennis court behind his mansion has agreed to pay a $2 million fine to avoid prison, state officials said yesterday.

Andrew Krieger had been sued by both the Department of Environmental Protection and the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, and also faced criminal charges.

"This is the largest penalty to date against an individual for destroying parkland," DEP Commissioner Bradley Campbell said yesterday. "And the facts more than amply justify it."

Krieger, a currency trader, bulldozed more than an acre of Palisades Interstate Park in 2002, leveling trees, excavating a mile of trails, destroying an old stone wall and disturbing two small streams next to his property in Alpine, state officials said.

State officials said the work was done during a three-month period after Krieger failed to obtain DEP permission to build a tennis court on the land. The state and the park commission separately sued Krieger in 2003, seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

"In my 20 years of public land management, I have never seen a case as severe as this, where an adjacent property owner took such a deliberate and willful action in damaging public park property," commission Superintendent Jim Hall said in a statement yesterday.

Krieger was charged with theft, criminal mischief, conspiracy to commit theft and conspiracy to commit criminal mischief. He faced up to 20 years in prison before the charges were downgraded to criminal mischief as part of the settlement agreement.

In addition to paying the fine, Krieger, who is in his late 40s and reportedly has moved to Franklin Lakes, will apologize for damaging public parkland. He could not be reached for comment last night.

As of last year, Kriegerwas president, chief executive and principal shareholder of NorthBridge Capital Management, an investment firm that caters to major institutions and high net worth individuals, according to a press release. Krieger wrote a book, "The Money Bazaar: Inside the Trillion-Dollar World of Currency Trading," published in 1992 and now out of print.

He also oversees a $600 million hedge fund, and recently launched a $350,000 tsunami relief fund with his own money, according to NJBiz.

Alexander Lane covers the environment. He can be reached at ala ne@starledger.com or (973) 392-1790.

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