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For Immediate Release:  
For Further Information:
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February 23, 2009  

Peter Aseltine
609-292-4791

Office of The Attorney General
- Anne Milgram, Attorney General
Division of Criminal Justice
- Deborah L. Gramiccioni, Director

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Former Employee of City of Newark Sentenced to Prison for Conspiring to Defraud Federal Child Nutrition Program State investigation uncovered $1 million in phony vouchers

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TRENTON - Attorney General Anne Milgram and Criminal Justice Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni announced that a former employee of the City of Newark was sentenced to prison today for conspiring to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from the federally funded Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program by issuing fraudulent vouchers.

According to Director Gramiccioni, Charles Brown, 41, of Newark, was sentenced to eight years in state prison by Superior Court Judge Michael A. Petrolle in Essex County. Brown pleaded guilty on Dec. 5 to second-degree official misconduct. He admitted that he used his position as a senior clerk for the Newark WIC Program to issue thousands of fake vouchers.

An ongoing investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau revealed that between Dec. 1, 2005, and Jan. 31, 2007, Brown and others conspired to issue approximately $1 million in fraudulent vouchers, which were deposited into the bank accounts of more than 20 WIC-authorized vendors throughout New Jersey.

Brown has been in jail since May of last year, when he was arrested in the investigation. The investigation revealed that Brown supplied fraudulent vouchers, most of which were issued in fictitious names, to the owner of a small grocery store in Newark. Those vouchers and other fraudulent vouchers were sold by the stack to various vendors in Essex, Union and Camden counties.

On Friday, another former senior clerk in the Newark WIC program, Wyetta Judson, 38, of Newark, pleaded guilty to second-degree official misconduct in connection with the conspiracy. The state will recommend that she also be sentenced to state prison. Second-degree crimes carry a sentence of five to 10 years in state prison and a criminal fine of up to $150,000.

“It is shocking that these government employees used the authority entrusted to them to steal from a program such as WIC, which serves the basic nutritional needs of some of our most vulnerable children,” said Attorney General Milgram. “Our ongoing investigation has uncovered a conspiracy to defraud this federally funded program of approximately $1 million.”

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 Michael Monahan is prosecuting the case and handled today’s sentencing. The investigation is being 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.

“This investigation began when the state Department of Health and Senior Services noted certain suspicious trends in the issuance of vouchers by the Newark WIC Program,” said Director Gramiccioni. “State and city officials subsequently alerted the Division of Criminal Justice. Investigators in our Corruption Bureau have worked diligently to uncover the full scope of this fraud, analyzing voluminous records and conducting numerous interviews.”

On May 15, 2008, the Division of Criminal Justice obtained an indictment charging Leocadia Cepeda, 38, the owner of G&S Supermarket on Westminster Avenue in Elizabeth, with receiving stolen property, theft by deception, and tampering with public records or information. The indictment alleged that between September 2006 and January 2007, Cepeda, an approved WIC vendor, obtained more than 500 WIC vouchers that she knew were stolen and used them to fraudulently collect more than $25,000 from the state Department of Health and Senior Services.

Cepeda deposited the vouchers in a bank account, filling them in with false information indicating that her store had supplied nutritional items to WIC participants when, in fact, no items were supplied. Cepeda was admitted into the Pre-Trial Intervention Program on Dec. 17 on the condition that she pay $25,929 in restitution and cooperate in the ongoing investigation.

Attorney General Milgram and Criminal Justice Director Gramiccioni noted that the Division of Criminal Justice - Corruption Bureau has established a statewide Corruption Tipline: 1-866-TIPS-4CJ. Additionally, the public can log on to the Division’s Web page at www.njdcj.org to report suspected wrongdoing. All information received through the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Tipline or Web page will remain confidential.

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