TRENTON
– Attorney General Paula T. Dow and
Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor
announced that an Atlantic City man who
formerly worked as a local administrator
of the New Jersey Home Energy Assistance
(HEA) Program pleaded guilty today to stealing
$9,062 from the program by filing false
applications to obtain benefits.
According
to Director Taylor, Marvin Laws, 56, of
Atlantic City, pleaded guilty to third-degree
theft by deception before Superior Court
Judge Mark H. Sandson in Atlantic County.
Under the plea agreement, the state will
recommend that Laws be sentenced to 364
days in the county jail and a period of
probation to be determined by the judge.
He must pay restitution of $9,062 to the
New Jersey Department of Community Affairs
(DCA) and will be permanently barred from
public employment in New Jersey. Judge Sandson
scheduled sentencing for Laws for Dec. 16.
In
pleading guilty, Laws admitted that between
August 2003 and May 2008, while employed
as an HEA benefits manager by Atlantic Human
Resources, a nonprofit contracted by the
DCA to administer the HEA program in Atlantic
County, he used his position to enter false
information into the HEA database in order
to unlawfully qualify for and obtain $9,062
in HEA benefits.
Investigations
by the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption
Bureau into fraud in the HEA program previously
resulted in prison or jail sentences for
a Paulsboro-based heating oil supplier and
four women who were local HEA administrators.
Deputy
Attorney General David M. Fritch and Deputy
Attorney General Robert Czepiel have prosecuted
Laws and the other HEA cases. Deputy Attorney
General Fritch represented the state at
today’s guilty plea hearing. 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.
The
prior convictions include Denise Nicole
Johnson, 37, of Paulsboro, who was sentenced
to four years in state prison on July 15,
2011. Johnson pleaded guilty 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 DCA to administer the HEA program
in Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties.
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.
Constance
, 26, of Chester, Pa., a former
HEA manager for Tri-County Community Action’s
Salem and Gloucester County offices, was
sentenced on July 19, 2010 to five years
in prison for official misconduct. She processed
false HEA applications for herself and five
family members, by which they obtained $24,010
in benefits.
Lynette
Bagby, 40, of Paulsboro, was sentenced on
Sept. 23, 2011 to 364 days in the county
jail and five years of probation. She pleaded
guilty on July 15 to a pre-indictment accusation
charging her with third-degree theft by
deception. She admitted that while employed
as an HEA aide and later an HEA supervisor
for Tri-County Community Action, she processed
fraudulent applications in the names of
relatives, acquaintances and others, which
generated $45,946 in fraudulent benefits
for herself and others.
Johnson,
Victor, and Bagby were each ordered
to pay full restitution, and they are permanently
barred from public employment.
The
investigations revealed that, in addition
to benefits in the form of credits applied
to utility bills, the false applications
filed by Johnson, Victor, and Bagby
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, Victor,
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.
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 Laws, Johnson,
Victor, and Bagby cases involved
both programs. The Harris case involved
the LIHEAP program.
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