TRENTON
– Attorney General Anne Milgram announced
that a husband and wife pleaded guilty today
to assisting the husband’s sister, a
local administrator of the New Jersey Home
Energy Assistance (HEA) Program, in stealing
from the state program.
The
administrator, Constance Campbell, was previously
indicted along with the couple and three other
relatives for allegedly stealing a total of
$24,086 from the program.
According
to Criminal Justice Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni,
Dennis Campbell, 38, of Philadelphia, and
his wife, Hollyann Allen, 37, each pleaded
guilty to third-degree theft by deception
before Superior Court Judge M. Christine Allen-Jackson
in Gloucester County.
Under
their plea agreements, the state will recommend
that each of them be sentenced to 364 days
in the county jail as a condition of a term
of probation. They must cooperate fully in
the ongoing investigation and prosecution
of Constance Campbell and the other remaining
defendants as well as pay restitution totaling
$5,296 to the New Jersey Division of Community
Affairs. Deputy Attorneys General David M.
Fritch and Robert Czepiel took the guilty
pleas for the Division of Criminal Justice
Corruption Bureau. Sentencing is scheduled
for Feb. 5.
Constance
Campbell, 24, of Chester, Pa., was indicted
on Aug. 17 on charges she used her position
as an HEA manager for Tri-County Community
Action to process false HEA applications for
herself and the five indicted family members.
Tri-Community Action is a nonprofit contracted
by the state to administer the HEA program
in Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties.
Family
members allegedly received a total of $24,086
in benefits for which they were not eligible,
including $15,012 in HEA checks intended for
heating oil purchases. They allegedly traded
the checks for cash from a Paulsboro-based
heating oil supplier, Thomas J. Harris, 66,
of Woolwich, owner and sole proprietor of
Harris Fuel Oil.
In
pleading guilty, Dennis Campbell and Hollyann
Allen admitted that they acted in concert
with Dennis’ sister, Constance Campbell,
to process fraudulent HEA applications on
their behalf to allow them to receive HEA
benefit checks from the State of New Jersey,
despite being residents of Pennsylvania and
not entitled to these benefits.
Thomas
Harris pleaded guilty on Aug. 10 before Judge
Allen-Jackson to second-degree charges of
financial facilitation of criminal activity
(money laundering) and misapplication of entrusted
property and property of government. He admitted
that he defrauded the HEA Program of $400,000
by offering low-income beneficiaries of the
program cash for their state-issued assistance
checks instead of fuel to heat their homes.
He faces four years in state prison and must
pay restitution of $152,111, representing
the total proceeds of the HEA checks he fraudulently
acquired minus the amounts he paid to the
beneficiaries from those proceeds.
Also
indicted with Constance Campbell were her
three sisters: Denise Campbell, 35, of Penns
Grove, Patsy Campbell, 30, of Chester, Pa.,
and Priscilla Campbell, 21, of Paulsboro.
The charges against those four defendants
are pending.
The
charges in the Campbell and Harris cases stem
from investigations by the Division of Criminal
Justice Corruption Bureau, conducted with
assistance from the New Jersey Department
of Community Affairs. The investigations were
conducted and coordinated for the Division
of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau by Lt.
Keith Lerner, Sgt. Robert Ferriozzi, Detective
Andrea Salvatini, Detective Anthony Luyber,
Deputy Chief of Detectives Neal Cohen, Analyst
Alison Callery and Deputy Attorneys General
Fritch and Czepiel.
The
HEA Program is administered by the New Jersey
Department of Community Affairs and local
agencies contracted by DCA. The New Jersey
HEA Program encompasses two separate programs,
the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program
(LIHEAP) and Universal Service Fund Program
(USF). The LIHEAP program provides direct
financial assistance to beneficiaries in the
form of payments to utility companies and
to fuel vendors to help low-income households
meet the cost of home heating and medically
necessary cooling. The USF program assists
such households by providing credits against
their natural gas and electric bills. The
Harris plea involved the LIHEAP program. The
Campbell indictment involves both programs.
Constance
Campbell was an office manager/HEA manager
for Tri-County’s Salem County and Gloucester
County offices. Her duties included processing
HEA benefit applications. Between January
2007 and June 2009, Constance Campbell allegedly
created fraudulent accounts for herself and
each of the indicted family members, none
of whom were eligible for benefits. Four,
including Constance, didn’t even reside
in New Jersey. Some used the family member’s
name on the account, but others used the name
of another person or a fictitious name to
hide the beneficiary’s true identity.
Certain applications also deliberately understated
household income or included additional fictitious
dependents in order to increase the amount
of benefits paid out on the application.
Where
a false name was used, the family member’s
name would be listed on the account as the
authorized representative of the household,
so checks would be payable to the family member.
The four defendants who did not reside in
New Jersey allegedly used the address of a
New Jersey resident family member or Post
Office boxes in New Jersey to receive the
benefit checks. The sisters who did live in
New Jersey, Denise and Priscilla, allegedly
received USF benefits in the form of credits
to their utility accounts, in addition to
LIHEAP checks.
All
of the defendants were charged in the indictment
with misapplication of entrusted property
and property of government (3rd degree) and
financial facilitation of criminal activity
(money laundering) (3rd degree). In addition,
Constance Campbell was charged with official
misconduct (2nd degree), theft by deception
(3rd degree), tampering with public records
or information (3rd degree), and falsifying
records (4th degree). The indictment is merely
an accusation and the defendants are presumed
innocent until proven guilty.
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