Feds Pursue Bank Accounts, Mansion Bought By Bergen Lawyer With $9M In COVID Relief Funds Feds Pursue Bank Accounts, Mansion Bought By Bergen Lawyer With $9M In COVID Relief Funds
Feds Pursue Bank Accounts, Mansion Bought By Bergen Lawyer With $9M In COVID Relief Funds Federal authorities have moved to seize 11 bank accounts, an investment account and a million-dollar Cresskill home bought by a Cliffside Park lawyer accused of scamming lenders out of $9M intended for small businesses crippled by COVID-19. Jae H. Choi, 48, got the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds from three lenders on behalf of non-existent businesses that he claimed provided educational services, an indictment returned by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Newark alleges. Choi fabricated the existence of hundreds of employees, manipulated bank and tax records, and falsified a d…
NJ: Cliffside Park Lawyer Created Fake Companies, Got $9 Million In COVID Loans, Bought Mansion NJ: Cliffside Park Lawyer Created Fake Companies, Got $9 Million In COVID Loans, Bought Mansion
NJ: Cliffside Park Lawyer Created Fake Companies, Got $9 Million In COVID Loans, Bought Mansion A Cliffside Park lawyer scammed lenders out of $9M in COVID-relief loans by creating records for bogus businesses he claimed to control, then spent the money on a $1 million home in Cresskill and millions more in stock market investments, authorities charged. Jae H. Choi, 48, “fabricated the existence of hundreds of employees, manipulated bank and tax records, and falsified a driver’s license on the applications,” U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said. Choi told the lenders that he paid $3 million in monthly wages to hundreds of employees in the non-existent companies, Carpenito said. Lenders…
Feds Charge Former Local Party Committee Chairman With Lying On Tax Returns, Student Aid Apps Feds Charge Former Local Party Committee Chairman With Lying On Tax Returns, Student Aid Apps
Feds Charge Former Local Party Committee Chairman With Lying On Tax Returns, Student Aid Apps A public relations specialist and former local Democratic chairman from Union County lied both on his tax returns and on requests for student aid for one of his children, a federal grand jury indictment returned Tuesday alleges. The IRS originally charged Anthony Salters, 58, of Hillside earlier this year with filing a false federal income tax return in 2013 by stating that his business, Media Allies LLC, had no income. In fact, the IRS said, Salters and Media Allies had “substantial gross receipts” in 2013, including $104,411 worth of checks from, among others, the City of Orange the Pate…
NJ Feds: COVID Couldn't Slow Doc, Wife In Multi-Million Dollar Bribery Scam NJ Feds: COVID Couldn't Slow Doc, Wife In Multi-Million Dollar Bribery Scam
NJ Feds: COVID Couldn't Slow Doc, Wife In Multi-Million Dollar Bribery Scam The coronavirus pandemic hardly fazed a Rockland doctor who with his wife continued to collect bribes and kickbacks in exchange for ordering millions of dollars in genetic tests, federal authorities said Thursday. Yitzachok “Barry” Kurtzer, 60, of Monsey operated an office in Scranton, PA, as did another physician, Lee Besen, 64, of Waverly, PA, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Craig Carpenito said. Both collected monthly cash kickbacks and bribes ranging from $500 to $5,000 in exchange for “collecting DNA samples from Medicare patients and sending them for genetic tests to clinical laboratorie…
Feds: NJ Couple's Online Dating Scam Costs Those Looking For Love $6 Million Feds: NJ Couple's Online Dating Scam Costs Those Looking For Love $6 Million
Feds: NJ Couple's Online Dating Scam Costs Those Looking For Love $6 Million A married South Jersey couple orchestrated an online dating scam that wooed victims out of more than $6 million, federal authorities said. Martins Friday Inalegwu, 31, and his wife, Steincy Mathieu, 24, both of Burlington County’s Maple Shade, employed several accomplices – many of them living in Nigeria – to romance victims online and then take their money, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Craig Carpenito said. After making initial contact through dating and social media sites with phony identities, the thieves struck up what appeared to be romantic relationships with the victims either throug…
Longtime Hudson County Political Fixer Tied To JC Mayor Indicted By Federal Grand Jury Longtime Hudson County Political Fixer Tied To JC Mayor Indicted By Federal Grand Jury
Longtime Hudson County Political Fixer Tied To JC Mayor Indicted By Federal Grand Jury A federal grand jury returned an indictment Tuesday against a former political operative from Hudson County who’s accused of evading taxes on payments from builders and developers to expedite their projects, among other crimes. Thomas “Tommy” Bertoli, 62, a North Bergen native now living in Matawan, has worked political campaigns throughout the state for more than 40 years -- among them, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop’s successful 2005 council run and victorious 2013 mayoral campaign. Federal authorities zeroed in on the Bertoli’s dealings with builders and developers through several of…
Feds Charge Longtime Hudson County Political Fixer Tied To JC Mayor With Tax Evasion Feds Charge Longtime Hudson County Political Fixer Tied To JC Mayor With Tax Evasion
Feds Charge Longtime Hudson County Political Fixer Tied To JC Mayor With Tax Evasion A former rough-and-tumble political operative from Hudson County who helped run campaigns for Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, among others, was arrested Wednesday by federal agents who charged him with evading taxes on payments from builders and developers to expedite their projects. Thomas “Tommy” Bertoli, 62, a North Bergen native now living in Matawan, has worked political campaigns throughout the state for more than 40 years – among them, Fulop’s successful 2005 council run and victorious 2013 mayoral campaign – after starting out as a street organizer. Bertoli, who earned the nickname “…
Feds: NJ Postal Worker Admits $687,000 Slip And Fall Scam Feds: NJ Postal Worker Admits $687,000 Slip And Fall Scam
Feds: NJ Postal Worker Admits $687,000 Slip And Fall Scam A former U.S. Postal Service worker from Essex County admitted Monday that she pocketed unreported income -- and traveled to France and Africa -- while collecting $686,588 in workers compensation payments for an on-the-job slip and fall that she claimed disabled her, federal authorities said. Janeide Chillis, 53, of Irvington, pleaded guilty during a teleconference in exchange for leniency at a scheduled Sept. 10 sentencing on fraud and making false statements charges. Chillis began receiving workers compensation benefits from the U.S. Department of Labor after reporting that she'd been inj…
Israel’s Largest Bank Pays $900 Million In Offshore Tax Evasion Scheme, Soccer Payoffs Israel’s Largest Bank Pays $900 Million In Offshore Tax Evasion Scheme, Soccer Payoffs
Israel’s Largest Bank Pays $900 Million In Offshore Tax Evasion Scheme, Soccer Payoffs Israel’s largest bank and a Swiss subsidiary agreed in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday to pay $874.27 million to the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and the New York State Department of Financial Services to settle offshore tax-evasion charges. At the same time, Bank Hapoalim B.M. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Hapoalim (Switzerland) Ltd., agreed to pay more than $30 million to the United States to resolve a federal investigation into their roles in laundering bribes and kickbacks to the world governing body for soccer. As part of the tax-evasion settlement, Bank Hapoalim B.M.&…
$900,000 Tax Scam Gets NJ Tax Preparer Four Years In Fed Pen $900,000 Tax Scam Gets NJ Tax Preparer Four Years In Fed Pen
$900,000 Tax Scam Gets NJ Tax Preparer Four Years In Fed Pen A federal judge sentenced a former tax preparer who worked in Essex and Union counties to a plea-bargained four years in prison for his role in a $900,000 income tax scam, authorities said. Because there’s no parole in the federal prison system, Tony V. Russell, 49, of Stone Mountain, GA must serve out the entire term for his guilty plea to conspiring to defraud the IRS. Russell was the first of five men sentenced for preparing bogus tax returns at Tax Pro’s and Tax Solutions & Associates, federal prosecutors said. A federal judge in Trenton last September convicted one of two co-owner…
Feds In Newark Bust Contractor Who They Said Scammed Public Library Feds In Newark Bust Contractor Who They Said Scammed Public Library
Feds In Newark Bust Contractor Who They Said Scammed Public Library Federal authorities on Thursday arrested a Union County businessman who they said pulled off a pair of scams, one of which cost the Orange Public Library $40,000. Shenandoah Adams Sr., 54, of New Providence initially bought an East Orange site on Hilton Street in 2014 on behalf of his property management company, then arranged for a $153,562 loan to a “close associate” knowing that person didn’t have the money to pay his company the balance of the $225,000 purchase price, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said. At the March 2015 closing, Adams had his associate write a worthless check to cover …
Fed Jurors Convict Ex-Newark Police Officer Of Paying Kickbacks For No-Show Security Contract Fed Jurors Convict Ex-Newark Police Officer Of Paying Kickbacks For No-Show Security Contract
Fed Jurors Convict Ex-Newark Police Officer Of Paying Kickbacks For No-Show Security Contract Federal jurors in Newark convicted a former city police officer on Monday of paying kickbacks to a corrupt official for a no-show private security contract. Janell Robinson, 42, of Newark, was the ninth and final defendant convicted in a scheme to siphon money from the Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corporation (NWCDC). Jurors deliberated for two hours before finding Robinson guilty of conspiring in a massive corruption scheme with Linda Watkins Brashear, the former executive director of the NWCDC, which provided water to half a million New Jersey residents before it was clos…