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Stephen Pirrone, 54, formerly of Old Tappan and Norwood, took a deal in February after his three co-defendants all pleaded guilty in December to pocketing more than $180,000 in the unemployment scam.
Pirrone, who also must pay restitution of $54,623 to the state Department of Labor, led the scheme while in federal prison for collecting $200,000 in tax refunds by filing bogus W-2 forms claiming that he worked for companies that didn’t exist.
Authorities said Pirrone hatched the other scheme and enlisted the others in fraudulently collecting $183,433 in unemployment benefits defendants from November 2006 through March 2013 in order to pay off a debt to one of them.
Stephen Pirrone (STORY / PHOTO: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Correspondent Mary K. Miraglia)
Pirrone schooled the others after learning that he was going to prison on the tax fraud conviction, and funneled money to him through the prison commissary account, New Jersey Deputy Attorney General Debra Conrad said.
Just before that, Pirrone served 18 months of a three-year state prison sentence on a 2010 burglary conviction out of Essex County, records show.
Given the opportunity to speak, Pirrone told Superior Court Judge James J. Guida that his criminal history began a decade ago.
“It would be very easy for me to give you a common denominator — the death of my father, gastric bypass surgery — but I was thinking in a warped way,” he said. “I hammer myself how I could have such warped thinking, but from that point of view, I convinced myself I was trying to help people. And I don’t know how I could think that.”
Guida said Pirrone’s math was off.
“He has had involvement with the law since 1979 including probation for terroristic threats,” the judge said.
“I do hope he is sincere,” Guida said. “He does appear to be remorseful.”
Pirrone also had new charges to deal with, involving a forged check that an indictment returned by a grand jury in Hackensack says Pirrone passed at the Westwood Sleep Center last June 28.
The defendants in the unemployment scam were charged in a June 26, 2014 indictment obtained by the Division of Criminal Justice Specialized Crimes Bureau following an investigation by the DCJ and state Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
“All of the false claims were based on fraudulent employer quarterly wage statements submitted to the state in the names of two businesses that were defunct: a trucking company formerly operated by Pirrone called Culver Transportation, Inc., and a bankrupt trucking company from which Pirrone formerly rented office and terminal space,” Acting State Attorney General John J. Hoffman said.
Co-defendants Wilfredo Sanchez, 38, of Newark, and Andre Brown, 37, of Woodland Park, “attempted to file additional claims using eight other false identities, but those claims were determined to be invalid by the Department of Labor and no benefits were distributed,” he said.
Sanchez got five years in state prison and was ordered to pay $43,908 in restitution, while co-defendant Jose Flores, 39, of Newark, who also took a plea, got five years of probation and must pay $34,827 in restitution.
Brown skipped sentencing to 364 days in the county ail after taking a plea and remained a fugitive today, authorities said.
“These four men thought they knew how to outwit the system and file false unemployment claims at will, but the Department of Labor foiled their plot through its vigilance and upgraded security measures,” Hoffman said. “We are partnering with the department to send these con artists to prison and protect this critical safety net for New Jersey’s workers.”
“Our attorneys and detectives are well-versed in investigating and prosecuting financial fraud, including fraud against government assistance programs,” said Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice. “We’re working hard with the Department of Labor to root out unemployment insurance fraud.”
Conrad presented the case to the state grand jury for the DCJ Specialized Crimes Bureau, Hoffman said. The DCJ investigation was conducted by Detectives Lynn Patrick Fitzgerald and Glenn Stanton, while the Department of Labor and Workforce Development probe was handled by Supervising Investigator Michael Kulyk and Supervisor of Investigations Michael B. Marich of the Bureau of Benefit Payment Control.
STORY / PHOTO: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Correspondent Mary K. Miraglia
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