TRENTON
– Attorney General Paula T. Dow and
Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor
announced that a Paulsboro woman who formerly
worked as a local administrator of the New
Jersey Home Energy Assistance (HEA) Program
was charged today with stealing from the
state program by filing fraudulent applications
to obtain benefits for herself.
According
to Director Taylor, the former administrator,
Nicole Victor, 37, of Paulsboro, was charged
in a state grand jury indictment with official
misconduct (2nd degree), theft by deception
(3rd degree), misapplication of entrusted
property and property of government (3rd
degree), financial facilitation of criminal
activity (money laundering) (3rd degree),
tampering with public records or information
(3rd degree), and falsifying records (4th
degree).
The
indictment stems from an investigation by
the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption
Bureau, conducted with assistance from the
Department of Community Affairs.
Victor
was formerly an HEA administrator in the
Paulsboro Office of Tri-County Community
Action, a nonprofit contracted by the state
to administer the HEA program in Cumberland,
Gloucester and Salem counties. The indictment
charges Victor with theft by deception for
allegedly stealing $11,705 in home energy
assistance funds by filing three false HEA
applications and taking the assistance funds
issued on these applications for her own
benefit.
Victor
worked for Tri-County from September 2002
through May 2008. She was hired as an HEA
aide, and became an HEA supervisor in 2004.
The indictment alleges that the thefts occurred
during and after her employment at Tri-County,
between June 1, 2005 and July 31, 2009.
Victor is charged with official misconduct
because, while employed by Tri-County as
an HEA administrator, she allegedly used
her position to file fictitious HEA applications
to fraudulently generate benefits for herself.
In
addition to the $11,705 in checks that Victor
allegedly obtained by fraud from the HEA
program, Victor allegedly traded numerous
two-party HEA benefit checks, totaling $3,588,
through local heating providers in return
for cash. These benefit checks are issued
by the HEA Program as two-party checks written
to the applicant and their heating fuel
provider to ensure that they are only used
to purchase home heating fuel. In charging
Victor with misapplication of entrusted
property and property of government, the
Indictment alleges she unlawfully disposed
of a total of $13,361 in state funds, including
the $11,705 alleged in the theft charge
and an additional $1,656 from a benefit
check she allegedly cashed through local
oil provider Harris Fuel Oil which was issued
on a HEA assistance application in her own
name.
The
second-degree official misconduct charge
carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in
state prison and a $150,000 fine. Third-degree
crimes carry a maximum sentence of five
years in state prison and a $15,000 fine,
while fourth-degree crimes carry a maximum
sentence of 18 months in state prison and
a $10,000 fine. The indictment is merely
an accusation and the defendant is presumed
innocent until proven guilty.
Deputy
Attorneys General David M. Fritch and Robert
Czepiel presented the case to the grand
jury. The indictment was handed up to Superior
Court Judge Linda R. Feinberg, who assigned
the case to Gloucester County, where Victor
will be ordered to appear in court at a
later date to answer the charges. The indictment
is posted with this release at www.njpublicsafety.com.
Thomas
J. Harris, 66, of Woolwich, the owner and
sole proprietor of Harris Fuel Oil, pleaded
guilty on Aug. 10, 2009 in a related investigation
to second-degree charges of 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. He is scheduled
to be sentenced on May 27 by Judge M. Christine
Allen-Jackson in Gloucester County.
In
a third related investigation, , 24, of Chester, Pa., another former
local administrator of the HEA program employed
by Tri-County, pleaded guilty to second-degree
official misconduct on Feb. 26 for stealing
$24,000 from the program. She is scheduled
to be sentenced on May 27 by Judge Allen-Jackson.
The state will recommend that she be sentenced
to five years in prison. She must pay full
restitution to the Department of Community
Affairs.
Five
relatives of also pleaded guilty
to assisting her in the scheme to defraud
the state program. A brother, Dennis Campbell,
38 of Philadelphia, was sentenced on April
9 to up to 364 days in the county jail as
a condition of two years of probation by
Judge Allen-Jackson, and his wife, Hollyann
Allen, was sentenced to three years of probation.
A sister of and Dennis Campbell
was sentenced to probation, and two other
sisters were admitted into the Pre-Trial
Intervention program. All of the relatives
must pay restitution for their shares of
the theft.
The
charges in the Victor, Harris and
cases stem from investigations that were
conducted by the Division of Criminal Justice
Corruption Bureau 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
Victor indictment involves both programs.
The Harris case involved the LIHEAP program,
and the Campbell case involved both programs.
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