TRENTON
- Attorney General Anne Milgram and Criminal
Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced
that an Atlantic County man was sentenced
Friday for stealing more than $5,200 in
disability insurance monies.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, Da Wei Chen, 49, of Atlantic City,
was ordered on Friday, Jan. 18 by Superior
Court Judge Albert J. Garofolo in Atlantic
County to serve three years probation. The
sentence was pursuant to Chen’s Oct.
31 guilty plea to a criminal accusation
which charged him with third-degree theft
by deception. Chen previously paid restitution
for the disability insurance monies stolen
from the state.
At his guilty plea hearing on October 31,
2007, before Superior Court Judge Bernard
E. DeLury in Atlantic County, Chen admitted
that on June 15, 2006, he fraudulently advised
Bally’s Hotel and Casino, where he
was working as a chef, that he was unable
to continue working, claiming osteoarthritis
and related ailments. Chen subsequently
applied to the New Jersey Department of
Labor for disability medical leave. Chen
further admitted that, after he left Bally’s,
he applied for a mercantile license from
the municipality of Ocean City.
Chen
admitted that he then opened a Chinese massage
business known as Sea Wave Massage in the
Surf Mall in Ocean City, which he operated
seven days a week, 12 hours a day, during
the beach season. At Sea Wave Massage, Chen
provided massages to customers in exchange
for payment. He admitted that he wrongfully
collected approximately $5,290 in disability
payments from the New Jersey Department
of Labor after he left employment at Bally’s
and began operating Sea Wave Massage.
State
Investigator Weldon Powell and Deputy Attorney
General Joan M. Burke were assigned to the
investigation. Burke 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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