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South Jersey Doc Goes To Federal Prison For Forging $500,000 Worth Of Employer's Checks South Jersey Doc Goes To Federal Prison For Forging $500,000 Worth Of Employer's Checks
South Jersey Doc Goes To Federal Prison For Forging $500,000 Worth Of Employer's Checks A South Jersey doctor was sentenced Monday to two years in federal prison for stealing more than $500,000 from his previous employer and using it to pay his bills. Walter Sytnik, 35, of Voorhees, forged checks for five years from checks he stole from the medical practice where he worked as a bookkeeper before going to medical school, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. Sytnik also opened and maintained credit card accounts at the same banks as the doctor at the medical practice, then forged the doctor’s signature on the stolen checks and paid his credit card bills with them, Sellinger s…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Ring Member Convicted In $565,091 IRS Scam That Sent Refund Checks To Same NJ Town Ring Member Convicted In $565,091 IRS Scam That Sent Refund Checks To Same NJ Town
Ring Member Convicted In $565,091 IRS Scam That Sent Refund Checks To Same NJ Town A New Jersey woman was convicted of participating in a massive ID theft scheme that had $565,091 in tax refunds from the IRS sent to a small section of the same town. Awilda Henriquez, 35, took her chances with a trial after three of her accomplices took guilty pleas. She was found guilty in U.S. District Court in Camden on Thursday of 27 counts involving defrauding the federal government, mail theft, stealing government money and aggravated ID theft, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Ring members filed more than 3,300 tax returns in 2013 using the names and Social Security numbe…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Jersey Shore Man, 68, Who Used Facebook To Lure Young Out-Of-State Girl Gets 7 Years In Fed Pen Jersey Shore Man, 68, Who Used Facebook To Lure Young Out-Of-State Girl Gets 7 Years In Fed Pen
Jersey Shore Man, 68, Who Used Facebook To Lure Young Out-Of-State Girl Gets 7 Years In Fed Pen A 68-year-old Monmouth County man who lured an out-of-state girl to his home after posing as a young boy was sentenced Monday to a plea-bargained seven years in federal prison for getting her to send him pornographic images of herself. Local authorities had removed the child from the Union Beach home of Herman Christopher Jensen when the FBI began investigating his online activities. They soon learned that Jensen had assumed the identity of a 17-year-old boy named Kevin Bennett on Facebook “in order to entice and solicit [the girl] to send nude and sexually explicit images over the internet…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Feds: Parole Officers Bust Pedophile Parolee From Paterson With Heroin, Gun, Drug Sales Records Feds: Parole Officers Bust Pedophile Parolee From Paterson With Heroin, Gun, Drug Sales Records
Feds: Parole Officers Bust Pedophile Parolee From Paterson With Heroin, Gun, Drug Sales Records A convicted pedophile from Paterson was charged federally after his parole officers found large amounts of cash on his bed -- and a loaded gun under it, authorities said. Jessie Mayfield, 59, also had 115 heroin folds in a zip-locking bag, a digital scale and a notebook in which he recorded the dates and times of his drug deals, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said Friday. Mayfield began dealing drugs sometime after his release from state prison in November 2019, authorities said. Records show he'd served three years and eight months for sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl and 12-y…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Fetty Wap Trafficked 100 Kilos Of Opioids Across US, Federal Officials Say Fetty Wap Trafficked 100 Kilos Of Opioids Across US, Federal Officials Say
Fetty Wap Trafficked 100 Kilos Of Opioids Across US, Federal Officials Say New Jersey rapper Fetty Wap was among six men charged with running an elaborate cross-country drug distribution ring out of Long Island, authorities announced Friday. The rapper, whose real name is Willie Junior Maxwell II, was arrested Thursday by FBI agents at Citi Field. An indictment was unsealed in Central Islip federal court Friday, Oct. 29, charging six men with conspiring to distribute and possess controlled substances, including five of them also charged for using weapons in connection to drug trafficking. The six men distributed more than 100 kilograms of cocaine, heroin, fe…

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by Zak Failla
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Feds, NJSP Bust South Carolina-To-Paterson Gun-Running Ring Feds, NJSP Bust South Carolina-To-Paterson Gun-Running Ring
Feds, Njsp Bust South Carolina-To-Paterson Gun-Running Ring New Jersey State Police seized nine firearms that were headed to Paterson from South Carolina, leading to the arrests of six accused gun runners. Four defendants were in a vehicle stopped by State Police on Sept. 26, Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Rachael A. Honig said. Two of them -- ex-con Kendell McFadden, 28, and Laronmir MdFadden, 27, of Florence, South Carolina -- led the ring, a subsequent investigation involving the ATF found, she said. The McFaddens recruited a group of straw purchasers to buy the guns in and around Florence for them, Honig said. This summer, for instance, S…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Feds Bust South Jersey Man With Homemade Explosives Feds Bust South Jersey Man With Homemade Explosives
Feds Bust South Jersey Man With Homemade Explosives Federal agents busted a South Jersey man with do-it-yourself explosive devices and the materials used to make them, authorities said. Among various other items, Thomas Petronglo, 63, of Vineland had a 5¾-inch diameter metal can filled with potassium perchlorate and aluminum with a fuse sticking out, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said Thursday. The mixture is commonly used in commercial fireworks displays. Honig said authorities seized several other improvised devices -- mostly plastic cylinders and cardboard tubes containing "explosive mixtures" that were wrapped in black electrica…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Feds: NJ Ex-Con Who Served Time For Scamming Charities Charged With $1.35M Investor Ripoff Feds: NJ Ex-Con Who Served Time For Scamming Charities Charged With $1.35M Investor Ripoff
Feds: NJ Ex-Con Who Served Time For Scamming Charities Charged With $1.35M Investor Ripoff A compulsive gambler from Passaic County who went to federal prison for three years for ripping off organizations that benefit schoolchildren and people with life-threatening illnesses went right back to scamming after he got out, federal authorities charged. This time, Gregory Ciccone, 43, of Woodland Park orchestrated a scheme that defrauded investors of $1.35 million, much of which he used to buy a $54,330 BMW, clothes, wine and more, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Ciccone told the 22 victims that he operated companies that reserved blocks of rooms of luxury hotels that then…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Ex-BF Sentenced For Kidnapping Of NY Woman Found Dead In Suitcase Ex-BF Sentenced For Kidnapping Of NY Woman Found Dead In Suitcase
Ex-BF Sentenced For Kidnapping Of NY Woman Found Dead In Suitcase The ex-boyfriend of a 24-year-old Westchester, NY woman whose body was found dead in a suitcase in Connecticut has been sentenced to decades behind bars for his role in her 2019 kidnapping. Javier Enrique Da Silva Rojas, age 25, of Queens, pleaded guilty in White Plains federal court to kidnapping Valerie Reyes in New Rochelle and illegally transporting her to Fairfield County, where her body was found in a suitcase a week later in Greenwich. US Attorney Audrey Strauss announced that Rojas has been sentenced to 360 months in prison following his guilty plea in February last year. He was als…

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by Zak Failla
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Feds: Ex-Lodi HS Teacher Admits Scamming Insurance Out Of $550,000 For Compound Meds Feds: Ex-Lodi HS Teacher Admits Scamming Insurance Out Of $550,000 For Compound Meds
Feds: Ex-Lodi HS Teacher Admits Scamming Insurance Out Of $550,000 For Compound Meds A now-former Lodi High School teacher admitted that he collected $550,000 worth of compound medications through bogus claims to an employee benefit program. Jason Nardachone, 51, of Nutley bribed three other teachers $500 a month each to obtain compounded medications that they, like him, didn’t need, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Some of the unnecessary compounded medications – for vitamins and pain and scar creams -- cost the New Jersey School Employees’ Health Benefits Program (SEHBP) $3,300 to $22,800 apiece, she said. All told, Nardachone and his accomplices defrauded the…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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High-Living Ex-Bergen Stockbroker Arrested By IRS For Ducking $4.3M In Taxes, Feds Say High-Living Ex-Bergen Stockbroker Arrested By IRS For Ducking $4.3M In Taxes, Feds Say
High-Living Ex-Bergen Stockbroker Arrested By IRS For Ducking $4.3M In Taxes, Feds Say A disgraced stockbroker from Bergen County was arrested Thursday by IRS agents who said he lived the high life while shortchanging Uncle Sam $4.3 million. Jason Kronick, 48, of Woodcliff Lake made headlines after he was fired from one job for alleged “unauthorized trading and unauthorized positions,” then resigned from after allegedly omitting $330,000 in judgments against him on his job application. Kronick, who eventually filed for bankruptcy, earned $20 million during tax years 2008 through 2010, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said Thursday. Honig said Kronick: used roughly $1.…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Federal Grand Jury Indicts South Jersey Officer Who Pepper-Sprayed Handcuffed Driver Federal Grand Jury Indicts South Jersey Officer Who Pepper-Sprayed Handcuffed Driver
Federal Grand Jury Indicts South Jersey Officer Who Pepper-Sprayed Handcuffed Driver An angry South Jersey police officer doused a drunk driver with pepper spray twice after he’d been handcuffed, then filed a false report about the incident, an indictment returned by a federal grand jury on Thursday alleges. Another officer had handcuffed the disruptive driver and was beginning to put him in the rear of a patrol vehicle at a local gas station when Bridgeton Police John Grier III “grabbed a large can of OC spray and pulled out the pin,” Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael Honig said. Grier, 49, of Cedarville, told the officer to “step back,” then asked the driver, “Do you want to …

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by Jerry DeMarco