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TRENTON
- Attorney General Stuart Rabner and Criminal
Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced
that a Monmouth County resident was sentenced
to prison today for fraudulently attempting
to obtain more than $85,000 in disability
payments.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, Jonathan B. Siegel, 47, of Freehold,
was sentenced to three years in state prison
by Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mellaci
Jr. in Monmouth County. He was ordered to
pay $33,574 in restitution to Unum Life
Insurance Company of North America, representing
the total amount he was actually overpaid
as a result of the fraud. The sentence followed
Siegel’s guilty plea to attempted
theft by deception, a charge contained in
a March 6, 2006 Monmouth County grand jury
indictment.
At
the Oct. 11 guilty plea hearing before Judge
Mellaci, Siegel admitted that between January
1998 and September 2001, he fraudulently
attempted to obtain more than $85,000 in
disability insurance benefits from the Unum
Life Insurance Company of North America.
Siegel, a former New Jersey licensed podiatrist,
had filed a disability claim with Unum alleging
that he was injured and could no longer
work as a podiatrist.
Siegel
admitted that he provided falsified information
to Unum regarding his employment and income
in order to collect greater disability benefits
from Unum. Siegel admitted that while collecting
such benefits, he withheld information from
the insurance company about his employment
as a law clerk and attorney with law firms
in New Jersey and New York.
State Investigator Natalie Brotherston and
Civil Investigator Martin Arasin coordinated
the investigation. Deputy Attorney General
Peter W. Lee represented the Office of Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor at the sentencing.
The
Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor was
established by the Automobile Insurance
Cost Reduction Act of 1998. The office is
the centralized state agency that investigates
and prosecutes both civil and criminal insurance
fraud, as well as Medicaid fraud.
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