TRENTON
– Attorney General Paula T. Dow and
Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor
announced that the former executive director
of the now-defunct New Africa Day Care Center
in Newark has pleaded guilty to stealing
$234,664 in public funding that she and
her co-defendants diverted from the non-profit
day care center for their personal use.
According
to Director Taylor, Muslimah Suluki, 63,
of College Park, Georgia, pleaded guilty
yesterday to a second-degree charge of theft
by failure to make a required disposition
of property received before Superior Court
Judge Pedro J. Jimenez Jr. in Mercer County.
Under the plea agreement, the state will
recommend that Suluki be sentenced to four
years in state prison. She must pay restitution
of $234,664 to the Department of Education.
The charge was contained in a June 14, 2006
indictment obtained by the Division of Criminal
Justice, which also named her ex-husband,
her son, and New Africa Day Care Center
Inc., the corporate owner of the center.
Deputy
Attorney General David M. Fritch took the
guilty plea for the Division of Criminal
Justice Corruption Bureau. Judge Jimenez
scheduled Suluki to be sentenced on Sept.
7.
“This
defendant was supposed to be in the business
of helping young children in Newark to get
a stronger start in life, but instead she
diverted state pre-school funding for her
own selfish purposes, including luxury cars
and vacations,” said Attorney General
Dow.
“In
partnership with the Department of Education
and other state agencies, we will remain
vigilant to prevent abuse and theft involving
state programs and funding,” said
Director Taylor.
“We
must ensure that taxpayer dollars are used
for their intended purposes.”
Suluki’s
ex-husband, Mahdi Suluki, 69, of East Orange,
who served as a consultant and board member
of New Africa Day Care Center, pleaded guilty
on July 21, 2008 to stealing private donations
to the daycare center. He fled New Jersey
after pleading guilty, but he and Muslimah
Suluki, who also was a fugitive, were arrested
in January 2010 in North Carolina by local
authorities on New Jersey warrants. They
were returned to New Jersey by the U.S.
Marshals Service. Mahdi Suluki was sentenced
on June 30, 2010 to four years in state
prison and was ordered to repay the stolen
donation.
New
Africa was formerly located on South Orange
Avenue in Newark. The state’s investigation
revealed that between January 2001 and March
2004, when New Africa closed, the defendants
took thousands of dollars in state funds
that were dedicated for day care and preschool
programs and used them for personal expenditures,
including, among other things, purchases
of two Jaguars for Muslimah and Mahdi Suluki,
and vacations in Chicago and Hyannis Port,
Mass. Muslimah Suluki’s son, Robert
Parrish, 47, of Neptune, N.J. – in
concert with his mother – diverted
funds from the non-profit New Africa Day
Care Center to a for-profit day care center
they ran in Neptune called Aziz Learning
Center, from which they withdrew profits.
On
July 29, 2008, Parrish was convicted at
trial as an accomplice of third-degree charges
of theft by failure to make a required disposition
of property, misconduct by a corporate official,
and failure to file a state income tax return
for 2002. He was sentenced on Oct. 24, 2008
to five years probation, conditioned on
him serving 200 days in the Mercer County
Jail.
The
investigation was conducted by State Investigator
Wayne Cummings and Detective Lee Bailey
for the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption
Bureau and Tax Investigator Bruce Stuck
of the New Jersey Division of Taxation Office
of Criminal Investigation. Deputy Attorney
General Susan Kase presented the indictment
to the state grand jury and prosecuted the
husband and son.
The
investigation started when the Department
of Education discovered questionable expenditures
and reported them to the Attorney General’s
Office. Attorney General Dow thanked the
Department of Education for providing administrative
resources and investigative assistance to
the Division of Criminal Justice throughout
the investigation.
In
addition to federal funds, New Africa received
Abbott pre-school funding from the New Jersey
Department of Education and day care funding
from the state Department of Human Services.
New Africa, which typically had an enrollment
of about 45 children, received more than
$1.8 million in public funding during the
years it operated.
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