TRENTON — When Julie Angarone met her husband Philip three years ago to talk about their impending divorce, she had no idea their cordial conversation would blow the lid off a secret that was kept hidden for years.

Suspicious because her husband had asked to meet in a public place, wondering if she could trust what he said about his real income, Julie Angarone secretly recorded the meeting.

What she heard floored her — and would soon floor the entire state.

With the tape rolling, Philip Angarone said he was making illegal campaign donations for his company, Birdsall Services Group, as part of a wide-ranging scheme to curry favor with politicians handing out contracts.

Three months later, Julie Angarone shared that admission with state authorities, touching off an investigation into one of the largest pay-to-play scandals in New Jersey history. It would lead to criminal charges against her husband and eight others and bring down one of the state’s biggest engineering firms.

Through it all, Julie Angarone has never spoken publicly about the tape or the meeting or why she went to the police.

But now she’s breaking her silence.

"After three months of deliberation, I did what I thought to be the right thing," Julie Angarone told The Star-Ledger. "This was a huge decision for me. I had nothing to gain from it. I was never interested in hurting my ex or anyone else."

Though she declined a formal interview, Angarone said in a statement that turning in her husband was best for their children.

"If I didn’t turn him in and it was found out that I was aware, would I get in trouble as well?" she said. "What impact would that have on my children? I had no way of knowing how big the issue was."

It turned out to be huge.

Over at least six years, the company ran a massive scheme to circumvent laws designed to prevent contractors from essentially buying lucrative public contracts with political donations to elected officials.

Unable to give more than $300 to campaigns, Birdsall instead had its employees write personal checks for that amount or less, bundled them together and sent them to Republicans and Democrats across the state.

(For a full list of politicians who received illegal contributions from Birdsall Services Group, click here.)

Because each check was written for $300 or less, campaigns were not required to disclose the contributors to the public. From 2008 to early 2012, records show, Birdsall made more than 1,000 secret contributions worth $1.05 million.

The company, which once employed about 325 people, pleaded guilty in June and plans to liquidate.

Since the scandal broke, speculation has run rampant about Julie Angarone’s motivations for taping her husband.

"I recorded it because he asked to meet me in a ‘public place’ and I watch too many crime shows, so it made me suspicious," she said. "His admission of participation in an illegal activity put me in a difficult position."

The strained couple originally met that summer day in 2010 to discuss Philip Angarone’s income as marketing director of Birdsall, according to court documents. He told his wife that he seemed to be making more than he was because of the large number of bonuses he was receiving as reimbursement for the political contributions made on behalf of the company.

Three months after the admission, Julie Angarone said, she told authorities about the conversation. Then, in February 2011, when they began asking more questions about the situation, she said she handed over a copy of the tape.

Philip Angarone and another Birdsall employee, Eileen Kuhfahl, have since pleaded guilty for their roles in the scheme, and the seven other executives who have been charged have pleaded not guilty. An attorney for Philip Angarone declined comment.

Julie Angarone said she recently listened again to the recording, which she declined to provide to the newspaper and which has never been made public, and noted that most of the conversation focused on their children.

"It is obvious from the tape that we are friendly and get along well," she said.

Even though the company is bankrupt and her actions eventually forced Philip Angarone to plead guilty, she said, "he and I get along well, we communicate constantly regarding our children" and they are respectful toward each other.

"He has no ill will towards me," she said.

And to anyone who questioned why she turned him in, she said it had nothing to do with revenge: "I wonder what anyone else would do in my shoes."

RELATED COVERAGE

• Bankrupt engineering firm Birdsall Services Group to sue 23 former officials for $35M

• Bankrupt engineering firm Birdsall Services Group claims shareholder pillaged confidential documents

• Secret files reveal how pay-to-play works in N.J.

• Secret recording led to criminal case against N.J. engineering firm Birdsall Services Group

• More Birdsall

FOLLOW LEDGER POLITICS: TWITTER | FACEBOOK | GOOGLE+