TRENTON
– Acting Attorney General Ricardo Solano
Jr. announced that a Pennsylvania woman pleaded
guilty today to assisting her sister, a local
administrator of the New Jersey Home Energy
Assistance (HEA) Program, in stealing from
the state program.
According
to Criminal Justice Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni,
Patsy , 30, pleaded guilty to third-degree
theft by deception before Superior Court Judge
M. Christine Allen-Jackson in Gloucester County.
The
administrator, , was previously
indicted along with five of her relatives
for allegedly stealing a total of $24,086
from the program.
Under
the plea agreement, the state will recommend
that Patsy be sentenced to 364 days
in the county jail as a condition of a term
of probation. She must cooperate fully in
the ongoing investigation and prosecution
of and the other remaining
defendants as well as pay restitution totaling
$4,710 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. 26.
Last
month, ’s brother, Dennis ,
38, of Philadelphia, and his wife, Hollyann
Allen, 37, each pleaded guilty before Judge
Allen-Jackson to third-degree theft by deception.
They are scheduled to be sentenced on Feb.
5.
, 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, Patsy admitted
that she acted in concert with her sister,
, 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.
Denise
, 35, of Penns Grove, and Priscilla
, 21, of Paulsboro – both ’s sisters – were also
indicted. The charges against both are pending.
The
charges in the 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
indictment involves both programs.
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,
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.
###
|
