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 was
sentenced to state prison today for 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,
was sentenced to four years in state prison
by Superior Court Judge Pedro J. Jimenez
Jr. in Mercer County. She was ordered to
pay restitution of $234,664 to the New Jersey
Department of Education. Suluki pleaded
guilty on June 7 to a second-degree charge
of theft by failure to make a required disposition
of property received. 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 from
Suluki for the Division of Criminal Justice
Corruption Bureau and represented the state
at the sentencing.
“Instead of using
government pre-school funding to advance
the development and education of the disadvantaged
children in her care, this defendant stole
more than $230,000 so that she could live
a life of luxury,” said Attorney General
Dow. “This prison sentence sends a
deterrent message that we will aggressively
investigate and prosecute those who misuse
public funds.”
“We have now secured
prison or jail sentences for all three individual
defendants who were indicted in this case,
including two who were arrested as fugitives
in North Carolina,” said Director
Taylor. “This case demonstrates our
determination to hold those who engage in
this type of abuse accountable.”
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. Muslimah Suluki was also
ordered today to pay $2,041 to the Attorney
General’s Office to cover the cost
to the state of returning her to New Jersey.
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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