State officials had been barred from identifying Brennan and the other defendants after lawyers for some of the defendants won a court order sealing the entire complaint. The complaint remained sealed yesterday.
No details of the allegations have been made public other than a statement issued by Attorney General Deborah Poritz on Aug. 9 in which she said the complaint alleged "massive securities fraud" against the then-unidentified defendants.
The other defendants are Leonard B. Greer, L.C. Wegard & Co. Inc., Roger B. Barnett, Robert G. Berkson, Richard P. Brown, Michael K. Hart, Michael J. McDermott and Austin Bernet Inc.
Yesterday's order by the two-judge appellate division panel directed Weiss to unseal only those portions of the state's complaint that are not already under seal in appeals before the appellate court on two other cases.
It was unclear late yesterday when Weiss would determine which portions of the state's complaint could be unsealed.
Brennan's lawyer, Donald Robinson of Newark, declined to comment because the state complaint was still under a court-ordered seal.
Earlier this month, Brennan filed for bankruptcy protection to gain time to appeal a $75 million federal fine that was due Aug. 13.
That $75 million federal fine was ordered in June after a federal judge in Manhattan ruled that Brennan had masterminded a "massive and continuing fraud" on his customers at First Jersey Securities Inc. in the mid-1980s.
U.S. District Judge Richard Owen found that Brennan's brokers employed high-pressure telephone pitches to coax potential customers to buy designated stocks.
The Securities and Exchange Commission had charged that First Jersey's 1,200 salespeople pushed a single stock a month, promising it was a good investment even as they inflated its price so First Jersey could pocket the difference.
Brennan, 51, of Brielle, N.J., owns two New Jersey racetracks, Garden State Park in Cherry Hill and Freehold Raceway, and has several horse farms. He is also chairman of the board of regents of Seton Hall University, his alma mater. He owes the South Orange school $5.25 million, according to his Chapter 11 filing.
