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TRENTON
– Attorney General Paula T. Dow and
Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor
announced that a former local administrator
of the New Jersey Home Energy Assistance
(HEA) Program was sentenced to prison today
for stealing from the program. A second
former local administrator pleaded guilty
today to official misconduct in a separate
case and also faces prison.
“These
defendants had a duty to honestly administer
the heating assistance program, but they
instead devised schemes to defraud it,”
said Attorney General Dow. “These
cases send a strong message that we will
aggressively prosecute those who abuse public
positions for personal gain.”
“Through
prosecutions such as these, we are working
to deter the type of fraud that drives up
the cost of public assistance programs,”
said Director Taylor.
According
to Director Taylor, ,
24, of Chester, Pa., was sentenced to five
years in state prison by Superior Court
Judge M. Christine Allen-Jackson in Gloucester
County. pleaded guilty on Feb.
24 to second-degree official misconduct,
a charge contained in an Aug. 17, 2009 state
grand jury indictment.
admitted that she used her former position
as an HEA manager for Tri-County Community
Action Partnership to process false HEA
applications for herself and five family
members who were also indicted. Tri-County
is a nonprofit contracted by the New Jersey
Department of Community Affairs to administer
the HEA program in Cumberland, Gloucester
and Salem counties. was an office
manager/HEA manager for Tri-County’s
Salem County and Gloucester County offices.
must pay full restitution to the Department
of Community Affairs, including $4,089 for
fraudulent applications she filed for her
own benefit, and $19,921 for fraudulent
applications she filed to deliver financial
benefits to the five family members. The
five family members have pleaded guilty
and are responsible with her for paying
back the funds they received. was
required to forfeit her job and is permanently
excluded from public employment in the state.
Also
today, a second former local HEA administrator,
Nicole Victor, 37, of Paulsboro, pleaded
guilty to second-degree official misconduct
before Judge Allen-Jackson for defrauding
the state program of $11,705 by filing false
applications to obtain benefits for herself.
She was charged in a May 12, 2010 state
grand jury indictment. The state will also
recommend that Victor be sentenced to five
years in state prison. She will be required
to pay $11,705 in restitution and will be
permanently excluded from public employment
in New Jersey.
Victor
was formerly an HEA administrator in the
Paulsboro Office of Tri-County Community
Action. In pleading guilty, Victor admitted
that, while employed by Tri-County as an
HEA administrator, she used her position
to file fictitious HEA applications to fraudulently
generate benefits for herself. She admitted
that she fraudulently obtained $11,705 by
filing three false HEA applications and
taking the assistance funds issued on the
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 official misconduct occurred between
June 2005 and May 2008.
Judge
Allen-Jackson scheduled sentencing for Victor
for Oct. 15. Deputy Attorneys General David
M. Fritch and Robert Czepiel prosecuted
the cases for the Division of Criminal Justice
Corruption Bureau and represented the state
at today’s sentencing and plea hearings.
The charges resulted from investigations
by the Division of Criminal Justice, conducted
with assistance from the Department of Community
Affairs.
In
the case, family members received
a total of $24,010 in benefits for which
they were not eligible, including approximately
$15,000 in HEA checks intended for heating
oil purchases. They 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.
On
June 17, Harris was sentenced to four years
in state prison by Judge Allen-Jackson.
He pleaded guilty on Aug. 10, 2009 to second-degree
charges of financial facilitation of criminal
activity (money laundering) and misapplication
of entrusted property and property of government.
Harris admitted he defrauded the HEA Program
of $399,812 by offering low-income beneficiaries
cash for their state-issued assistance checks
instead of fuel to heat their homes. Harris
paid $247,700.50 to the beneficiaries in
exchange for assistance checks in amounts
totaling $399,812, which he deposited into
Harris Fuel Oil accounts. As a result, Harris
retained over $152,000 in HEA funds for
himself. He was ordered to pay $152,100
in restitution to the Department of Community
Affairs and is permanently barred from doing
business with the State of New Jersey, pursuant
to a consent order executed by the court.
The
five relatives of admitted assisting
her in the scheme to defraud the state program.
A brother, Dennis , 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, 38, was sentenced
to three years of probation. Patsy ,
30, of Chester, Pa., a sister of
and Dennis, was sentenced on April 9 to
three years of probation. Two other sisters
pleaded guilty to third-degree misapplication
of entrusted property or property of government.
They were admitted into the Pre-Trial Intervention
program on Feb. 26. All of the relatives
must pay restitution for their shares of
the theft.
All
of 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 case involved the LIHEAP program.
The and Victor cases involved both
programs.
was an office manager/HEA manager
for Tri-County’s Salem County and
Gloucester County offices. Her duties included
processing HEA benefit applications. From
January 2007 to June 2009, she created fraudulent
accounts for herself and each of the five
family members, none of whom were eligible
for benefits. Four, including ,
did not even reside in New Jersey. Some
accounts used the family member’s
name, but others used the name of another
person or a fictitious name to hide the
beneficiary’s true identity and to
allow these individuals to collect financial
benefits from multiple fraudulent benefit
applications. Certain applications also
deliberately understated household income
or included additional fictitious dependents
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 used the address of
a New Jersey resident family member or Post
Office box in New Jersey to receive the
benefit checks. The sisters who lived in
New Jersey received USF benefits in addition
to LIHEAP checks.
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