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 sentenced to state prison today for
defrauding the program of more than $20,000
by filing false applications to obtain benefits.
In addition, a second former local administrator
of the program pleaded guilty today to stealing
over $40,000 in program benefits through
the submission of fraudulent benefit applications.
According
to Director Taylor, Denise Nicole Johnson,
37, of Paulsboro, was sentenced today to
four years in state prison by Superior Court
Judge M. Christine Allen-Jackson in Gloucester
County. Johnson pleaded guilty on Jan. 18
to second-degree official misconduct, admitting
that she defrauded the HEA program of $22,980
by filing nine false applications to obtain
benefits. She filed two of the applications
by entering false information into the program’s
computer system while employed as an HEA
aide in the Paulsboro Office of Tri-County
Community Action, a nonprofit contracted
by the New Jersey Department of Community
Affairs (DCA) to administer the HEA program
in Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties.
Johnson
was ordered to pay full restitution of $22,980
to the DCA and is permanently barred from
public employment in New Jersey. She was
indicted last year as a result of ongoing
investigations by the Division of Criminal
Justice Corruption Bureau, conducted with
assistance from the DCA.
Also
today, Lynette Bagby, 40, of Paulsboro,
pleaded guilty to a pre-indictment accusation
charging her with third-degree theft by
deception before Judge Allen-Jackson. Bagby
admitted that, while working as an HEA aide
and later an HEA supervisor for Tri-County
from 2001 to 2008, she processed fraudulent
applications in the names of relatives,
acquaintances and others, which generated
$45,946 in fraudulent benefits for herself
and others. The state will recommend that
she be sentenced to 364 days in jail and
a term of probation. She must pay full restitution
and will be permanently barred from public
employment in New Jersey. She is scheduled
to be sentenced on Sept 23.
“Four
defendants have now been sentenced to prison
as a result of our investigations into fraud
in this assistance program,” said
Attorney General Dow. “We are determined
to root out this type of corruption, which
drains public funding that is intended to
provide vital services to those in need.”
“By
resolutely pursuing every lead in these
investigations, we are continuing to prosecute,
convict and incarcerate defendants for stealing
from this public assistance program,”
said Director Taylor.
As
a result of the investigations by the Division
of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau, two
other women who were local administrators
of the HEA program and a Paulsboro-based
heating oil supplier were previously sentenced
to state prison. In addition, charges are
pending against a man who served as a local
HEA administrator in Atlantic County.
Deputy
Attorney General David M. Fritch and Deputy
Attorney General Robert Czepiel have prosecuted
Johnson and the other HEA cases. They handled
today’s sentencing and took Bagby’s
plea. The investigations have been conducted
and coordinated for the Division of Criminal
Justice Corruption Bureau by Lt. Keith Lerner,
Sgt. Robert Feriozzi Jr., Detective Andrea
Salvatini, Detective Anthony J. Luyber,
Deputy Chief of Detectives Neal Cohen, Analyst
Alison Callery and Deputy Attorneys General
Fritch and Czepiel.
Johnson
was indicted along with a boyfriend, Anthony
Lamont Taylor, 35, of Paulsboro, who received
$2,648 on one application for which he submitted
false information. He pleaded guilty on
June 30 to third-degree misapplication of
entrusted property and was sentenced on
July 8 to three years of probation, which
may be followed, at the judge’s discretion,
by 180 days in the county jail.
The
investigation revealed that, in addition
to benefits in the form of credits applied
to utility bills, these false applications
generated two-party HEA benefit checks that
were payable only to individuals and their
home heating suppliers. The checks were
to be used for the sole purpose of procuring
home heating fuel and could be deposited
only into the account of a home heating
supplier. However, Johnson and Bagby exchanged
and cashed these benefit checks through
third parties for cash or checks payable
solely to them.
Some
of the HEA checks were exchanged for cash
or company checks from Harris Fuel Oil of
Paulsboro. Thomas J. Harris, 68, of Woolwich,
the owner Harris Fuel Oil, pleaded guilty
to money laundering and misapplication of
entrusted property and property of government
as a result of the state investigations.
He was sentenced on June 17, 2010 to four
years in prison. He admitted he defrauded
the HEA Program of $400,000 by offering
low-income beneficiaries cash for their
state-issued assistance checks instead of
fuel oil. He was ordered to pay full restitution.
In
related cases, Nicole Victor, 38, of Paulsboro,
was sentenced on Jan. 7, 2011 to five years
in prison and ordered to pay restitution
of $11,705 in connection with false applications
she filed. Victor pleaded guilty to second-degree
official misconduct. She had been an HEA
administrator in the Paulsboro office of
Tri-County Community Action. ,
25, of Chester, Pa., a former HEA manager
for Tri-County’s Salem and Gloucester
County offices, was sentenced on July 19,
2010 to five years in prison for official
misconduct and was ordered to pay full restitution.
She processed false HEA applications for
herself and five family members, by which
they obtained $24,010 in benefits. Charges
are pending against Marvin Laws, 56, of
Atlantic City, who allegedly stole $9,062
through false applications while employed
as an HEA benefits manager by Atlantic Human
Resources, a nonprofit contracted by DCA
to administer the program in Atlantic County.
The
HEA Program is administered by the Department
of Community Affairs and local agencies
contracted by the DCA. The HEA Program encompasses
two separate programs, the federally funded
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program
(LIHEAP) and the state-funded 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 Johnson, Bagby,
and Victor cases involved both
programs. The Harris case involved the LIHEAP
program.
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