TRENTON
– Attorney General Paula T. Dow and
Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor
announced that a former employee of the
City of Newark has pleaded guilty for conspiring
to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars
from the federally funded Women, Infants
and Children (WIC) nutrition program by
means of fraudulent vouchers.
According
to Director Taylor, Audrey Walker Bey, 38,
of Newark, a former clerk for the Newark
WIC Program, pleaded guilty yesterday afternoon
(Oct. 4) to a charge of first-degree money
laundering before Superior Court Judge Thomas
M. Brown in Mercer County. Under the plea
agreement, the state will recommend that
she be sentenced to 10 years in state prison,
one-third of which would have to be served
without possibility of parole. She must
pay restitution in an amount to be determined
and will be permanently barred from public
employment in New Jersey.
In
pleading guilty, Bey admitted that she used
her position as a clerk for the Newark WIC
Program to issue and print thousands of
fraudulent vouchers. An ongoing investigation
by the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption
Bureau revealed that between Dec. 1, 2005,
and Jan. 31, 2007, Bey and other employees
of the Newark WIC Program, including two
former clerks who previously entered guilty
pleas, conspired to issue more than $1 million
in fake vouchers. Deputy Attorney General
Michael Monahan took the guilty plea for
the Division of Criminal Justice. Judge
Brown scheduled sentencing for Jan. 4, 2012.
“Not
only did this defendant betray the trust
inherent in her public position, she stole
federal funds that were meant to provide
nutritional necessities for the disadvantaged
children who are served by the Women, Infants
and Children program,” said Attorney
General Dow. “We will recommend that
she serve a lengthy prison sentence.”
“We
are working hard to root out official corruption
and misappropriation of public funds involving
government assistance programs,” said
Director Taylor. “We urge anyone with
information about such abuse to contact
us. We will thoroughly investigate any leads.”
Director
Taylor noted that the Division of Criminal
Justice has established a Corruption Tipline
1-866-TIPS-4CJ. The public
can also log on to the Division’s
Web page at www.njdcj.org
to confidentially report suspected wrongdoing.
Bey
was charged on June 9, 2009 in an eight-count
state grand jury indictment, which also
charged Benedicto Bernal, 32, of Newark,
owner of Dreamers Supermarket on 7th Ave.
in Newark, and Elvis Manuel Sanchez-Vasquez,
37, of Elizabeth, a former owner and manager
of Sanchez Supermarket on Springdale Avenue
in East Orange.
On
Dec. 1, 2009, Bernal pleaded guilty to first-degree
money laundering before Superior Court Judge
Edward M. Neafsey in Mercer County. Bernal,
who was not an authorized WIC vendor, admitted
that he purchased fraudulent vouchers from
Charles Brown, a former senior clerk for
the Newark WIC Program, and resold them
by the stack to vendors in Essex, Camden,
Union and Middlesex counties. Ultimately,
the fraudulent vouchers were deposited into
the bank accounts of more than 20 WIC-authorized
vendors.
On
Sept. 23, 2010, Sanchez-Vazquez pleaded
guilty to first-degree money laundering
before Judge Neafsey. Sanchez-Vazquez, an
authorized WIC vendor, admitted that he
knowingly purchased fraudulent WIC vouchers
from Bernal and deposited them in a bank
account he controlled in order to fraudulently
collect over $500,000 from the WIC program.
He admitted that his transactions were designed
to conceal the source and fraudulent nature
of the vouchers.
The
state will recommend that both Bernal and
Sanchez-Vazquez also be sentenced to 10
years in state prison, one-third of which
would have to be served without possibility
of parole.
Brown,
44, of Newark, pleaded guilty to second-degree
official misconduct for his role in the
scheme and was sentenced on Feb. 23, 2009,
to eight years in state prison by Superior
Court Judge Michael A. Petrolle in Essex
County. On Feb. 20, 2009, another former
senior clerk in the Newark WIC Program,
Wyetta Judson, 41, of Newark, pleaded guilty
to second-degree official misconduct. The
state will also recommend that she be sentenced
to state prison.
The
investigation began when the New Jersey
Department of Health and Senior Services
and the Newark Department of Health and
Human Services alerted the Division of Criminal
Justice to suspected thefts of vouchers
from the Newark WIC Program.
Deputy
Attorney General Monahan and Deputy Attorney
General Jeffrey Manis are prosecuting the
cases. The investigation has been conducted
by Detective Michael Behar and Sgt. David
Salzmann of the Division of Criminal Justice
Corruption Bureau, with the assistance of
Administrative Analyst Kathleen Ratliff.
WIC
is a federally funded program, administered
by the New Jersey Department of Health and
Senior Services, that provides low-income
women who are pregnant or breast feeding
and guardians of children up to age 5 with
vouchers to purchase nutritional necessities,
including baby formula, milk, orange juice
and cereal. The vouchers can be redeemed
at any store approved as a WIC vendor for
food items specifically listed on the voucher.
Once redeemed, the vendor completes the
voucher by filling in the cost of the product
supplied. The Newark WIC Program is one
of 18 WIC programs in New Jersey.
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