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Philip A. Ruggiero, Jr., 48, of Marlton, pleaded guilty in March in Hackensack to writing thousands of dollars worth of bad checks from a closed account at Mariners Bank in Edgewater.
Authorities with the state Division of Criminal Justice originally charged Ruggiero with taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for authorizing payments to printing companies owned by other defendants in the case.
But prosecutors with Attorney General Anne Milgram’s offer struck a deal, in which he pleaded guilty in March and accepted the sentence, which includes restitution.
Company officials got suspicious after Ruggiero abruptly quit, so they conducted an audit that uncovered the check kiting. Some of the checks were written to his wife, they said.
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