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Tag: US Attorney's Office
Controller From NJ Who Embezzled $2.37M From Madison Avenue Firm Gets 27 Months In Fed Pen
UPDATE: A controller from Middlesex County was sentenced to more than two years in federal prison for embezzling $2.37 million from his Madison Avenue employer.
Gerard Beauzile, 63, South Plainfield, conducted an elaborate, long-running scheme to issue bogus checks to himself that he then deposited into his bank account, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Beginning a decade ago and continuing through the end of 2020, Beauzile admitted issuing 140 checks to himself from the Manhattan-based company, which offers news, analysis, research and data for the "global energy industry," accordin…
Man Who Drove 12 Pounds Of Heroin, Fentanyl All The Way From Cali Busted In Bergen County: Feds
A California man was minutes from a dropoff after driving more than a dozen pounds of fentanyl and heroin cross country to New Jersey when he was stopped in Fort Lee for running a stop sign, authorities said.
Timothy Alan Blank, 54, of Reseda, CA, made it 2,800 miles before Fort Lee police pulled his SUV over in Englewood Cliffs north of Sylvan and Myrtle avenues last Friday, March 8, according to a federal complaint.
A Bergen County Sheriff's K-9 directed officers to the trunk, where it says they found the five kilos wrapped in five bricks.
Blank collected the wrapped $195,000 of heroin a…
Elderly NJ Couple's Personal Assistant Stole $2.9M From Them, Feds Charge
An elderly Bergen County couple had $2.9 million stolen by a now-former Ridgewood Public Library tech administrator whom they'd hired to be a part-time assistant at their home, federal authorities said following his arrest.
Charles Gallo, 34, of Hawthorne, was responsible for managing the victims’ monthly bills, handling their banking and helping them with email and other issues involving technology after being hired in 2018, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
The couple trusted Gallo with their personal bank accounts, credit card accounts, online retail accounts and email, the U.S. at…
NY Man Who Assaulted Female Passenger On Flight To Newark Gets 2 Years, No Parole
UPDATE: An upstate New York man who admitted assaulting a fellow passenger on a flight from Denver to Newark must spend two plea-bargained years in federal prison.
Ryan Manuella, 30, of Erie County, “moved to a vacant center seat next to a female passenger, who was sitting in a window seat” on the April 16, 2021 flight, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Manuella, who didn't know the woman, then "touched the passenger without her consent," Sellinger said.
"The victim then yelled at him and left the row of seats," the U.S. attorney said.
Defense attorney Andrew Olesnyck…
FBI Seizes Jersey Shore Man Accused Of Enticing Kids Into Making, Sending Sex Videos
An Ocean County man enticed children into producing and sending him sex videos, federal authorities charged.
A federal judge in Trenton ordered Daniel Nilla, 35, Brick, held following his arrest by the FBI, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said on Friday, Aug. 4.
Nilla received "images and videos containing child exploitation material from five minor victims" he communicated with on an instant messenger app, the U.S. attorney said.
"Nilla induced at least two of those minor victims to send him images and videos of themselves engaging in sexually explicit conduct," Sellinger added.
Nilla,…
Colombian Nationals Nabbed After NJ Home Break-In Nets Jewelry, Furs, Cash, More
Three Colombian nationals remain in federal custody and a fourth has already been deported after the government said they stole jewelry, a Rolex, an antique rifle, furs and cash in a home burglary in Union County.
The quartet also took a stamp collection, luxury bags and more after breaking into the Cranford home shortly before 5 p.m. last Nov. 30, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
They then loaded the valuables into a red Honda Accord that they'd driven there, an FBI complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Newark says.
Sellinger, who put the total value of the loss at more than …
NJ Deli Fraud Scheme Mastermind Arrested In Thailand: Feds
An international company chairman charged over a purported scheme to manipulate the stock market — one that resulted in a bogus $100M valuation for a Gloucester County deli despite minimal sales — was arrested in Thailand, the feds confirmed.
Peter Coker Jr., 54, had been a fugitive since September when prosecutors filed 12 federal charges against him, his father, Peter Coker Sr., 80, and associate James Patten, 63.
The trio allegedly boosted the share prices of Hometown International Inc. and another firm, E-Waste Corp.
Matthew Reilly, a spokesperson for the New Jersey US Attorney’s Offic…
2 Men Restrained Female Workers With Zipties To Rob $578K From NJ Check Cashers At Gunpoint: DA
Two men from New York City were arrested and jailed after they were apparently connected to a series of gunpoint robberies at check cashing services throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania that involved female workers being restrained with zipties, authorities announced.
Ramel Harris, 40, and Neville Brown, 38, both of Brooklyn, were charged by complaint with one count of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery, three counts of Hobbs Act robbery, and one count of using, carrying, and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announce…
Nationwide Hotel Chain's Corporate Credit Chief From NJ Admits Embezzling $300,000
A New Jersey employee who ran the company’s corporate credit card program for a nationwide hotel chain admitted embezzling $300,000, federal authorities said.
Marco Alvarez, 46, of Bloomfield, admitted that he “knowingly opened and used corporate credit cards to make $317,582 in unauthorized personal purchases” from April 2014 through January 2020, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Alvarez, who worked as a senior analyst for strategic sourcing, tried to hide the thefts by “transferring credits owed to the hotel to these credit cards to offset the unauthorized charges made,” Sellinger …
$150M Bank Fraud: Bergen Landlord Gets 8 Years, No Parole In Federal Prison
A Teaneck landlord must spend the next eight years in federal prison -- without parole -- for orchestrating a $150 million bank and securities fraud scheme.
Seth Levine, 53, was the founding partner, owner, and managing member of Norse Holdings, the parent company to more than 70 subsidiaries, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Each of the subsidiary companies owned one or more multifamily buildings, mostly in New Jersey, he said.
Beginning in 2009, Levine directed a scheme for nearly a decade to fraudulently refinance the multifamily properties by lying on refinancing appli…
Career Criminal From Connecticut, 73, Admits Committing Murder-For-Hire Of Jersey City Politico
A hardened ex-con from Connecticut admitted that he and a longtime criminal pal from Philadelphia stabbed a political consultant to death and then torched his Jersey City apartment in a murder-for-hire attack.
George Bratsenis, 73, of Monroe, CT said he and his partner were paid to whack Michael Galdieri, the son of former State Sen. James Galdieri (D-Jersey City) and a prominent figure in local Hudson County politics.
Bratsenis and the other killer, Bomani Africa, 61, were hired by onetime political operative Sean Caddle, who’d been an aide to former State Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) a…
Convicted NJ Child Porn Trafficker Gets 20+ Years In Fed Pen, No Parole, For Enticing Minors
A convicted child porn trafficker from Union County must spend no fewer than 20 years in federal prison for doing it again while soliciting two children to "engage in sexually explicit conduct online," authorities said.
Christopher Gardiner, 39, of Cranford, must serve out just about all of the plea-bargained 20 years and eight months that he was sentenced to on Tuesday, Feb. 8, because there's no parole in the federal prison system.
Gardiner, who'd been convicted of similar charges in Union County in 2007, conducted an "ongoing sexually graphic conversation on a web-based social media appl…
Postage Scam: Brothers Who Co-Owned Bergen E-Commerce Company Admit Cheating Gov't Out Of $3M
Two brothers who co-owned a Bergen County e-commerce company admitted short-changing the government by more than $3 million in postage by altering hundreds of thousands of labels intended for envelopes and slapping them on outbound packages.
Jack Koch, 44, of Elmwood Park, and Steven Koch, 43, of Pompton Lakes, owned Fresh N Clear, a high-volume business that sold various household items online that were shipped o customers via the Postal Service, federal authorities said.
Over the course of several months in 2020, the company bought 240,471 USPS Priority Mail postage labels, “almost all fo…
NJ Ring That Dealt Fentanyl, Crack Smashed By Federal, County, Local Crime-Fighting Team
Eleven accused members of a drug ring that authorities said openly peddled crack and potentially fatal fentanyl in a Newark neighborhood were charged federally on Wednesday.
The ring's "primary supplier," Frazier Burton, 46, was caught with 100 bricks of heroin and fentanyl when tactical officers arrested him Wednesday morning, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said.
At 50 bags per brick, that's 5,000 individual packages -- all of which Honig said carried the neighborhood drug network's particular stamps.
The case took several months for an ad hoc team of local, county and federal inve…
3 Ewing Township Police Officers Indicted Federally For Assaulting Handcuffed Suspect, 16
One former and two current Ewing Township police officers surrendered to federal agents on Friday after they were indicted on civil rights charges following a recorded assault on a handcuffed juvenile nearly four years ago, authorities said Friday.
Current Officers Matthew Przemieniecki, 43, of Hamilton and Justin Ubry, 33, of Burlington and retired Lt. Michael Delahanty, 51, of Robbinsville all used "unreasonable and excessive" force in the Jan. 5, 2018 incident, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said.
Officers who pursued the 16-year-old boy after he stole a car and then crashed a car…
