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The circumstances surrounding the death of the consultant, Jack M. Shaw, are “suspicious,” said Edward J. DeFazio, the Hudson County prosecutor. He said it did not appear to be a homicide. “It could be natural, it could be accidental, it could be suicide,” he said, refusing to elaborate. An autopsy is set for Wednesday.

His death, reported by a companion to the authorities at 5:17 p.m., came hours after Dennis Elwell, the mayor of Secaucus, stepped down, becoming the first elected official to quit after being charged in the sprawling political corruption case.

Mr. Shaw, 61, once an adviser to some of New Jersey’s most influential Democrats, more recently worked mainly for developers doing business in Hudson County. A top client was Metrovest Equities, developer of the Beacon, a 10-building apartment complex on the site of the former Jersey City Medical Center.

But that type of work appears to have led him into the cross hairs of federal prosecutors.

He was charged on Thursday with accepting $10,000 cash from Solomon Dwek, the federal informant at the center of the corruption scandal, who was posing as a real estate developer seeking political help for his projects.

Prosecutors said Mr. Shaw proposed that Mr. Dwek make $10,000 in donations to the re-election campaign of the Jersey City mayor, Jerramiah T. Healy, in exchange for approvals.

According to a federal complaint, Mr. Shaw later told Mr. Dwek that he had given the money to Mr. Healy.

Aides to Mr. Healy, who has not been charged and has denied any wrongdoing, did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday night.

Prosecutors say that Mr. Shaw also introduced Mr. Dwek to several other officials who were eventually charged.

Mr. Shaw was a longtime Democratic operative who cut his teeth working for Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago and later was a campaign aide to Gov. Jim Florio.