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…
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…
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…
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.…
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 …
Feds: Sussex Man Admits Spending $5.6M COVID Relief Money On Stock Market, Luxury Vehicle, More Feds: Sussex Man Admits Spending $5.6M COVID Relief Money On Stock Market, Luxury Vehicle, More
Feds: Sussex Man Admits Spending $5.6M COVID Relief Money On Stock Market, Luxury Vehicle, More A Sussex County man who was seized by federal agents as he tried to board a flight to Pakistan admitted fraudulently collecting $5.6 million in federal COVID-19 pandemic business loans that he put to personal use, authorities said. Azhar Sarwar Rana, 30, of Newton, used the money -- designed to keep struggling small businesses afloat during the pandemic – to millions in the stock market, make a payment to a luxury car dealership and send hundreds of thousands of dollars to accounts in Pakistan, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Rana submitted an application for a stimulus loan und…
Grandparent Scam: Here’s How Pair From PA, NY Stole $300,000 From Elderly Victims Across US Grandparent Scam: Here’s How Pair From PA, NY Stole $300,000 From Elderly Victims Across US
Grandparent Scam: Here’s How Pair From PA, NY Stole $300,000 From Elderly Victims Across US At least 50 elderly victims across the United States were conned out of more than $300,000 by a ring of grandparent scammers who included a Pennsylvania woman and New York City man who confessed in federal court. Jacqueline Velazquez, 37, of Reading, and Daniel Duran, 33, of Queens played key roles in the phone and email-based scheme, Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said. Here’s how it worked, Williams said: Co-schemers based in the Dominican Republic called elderly victims throughout the U.S. Posing as a grandchild, or the grandchild’s attorney, they claimed they’d been j…
First Convict Sentenced Federally In Trenton Protest Firebombings First Convict Sentenced Federally In Trenton Protest Firebombings
First Convict Sentenced Federally In Trenton Protest Firebombings UPDATE: A South Jersey man was sentenced today to 28 months in federal prison for trying to set fire to a police cruiser during a video-recorded riot that broke out following a peaceful protest last year in Trenton. Killian F. Melecio, 20, of Columbus must serve just all of the sentence because there's no parole in the federal prison system. Melecio admitted via video conference in U.S. District Cout in Trenton earlier this year that he stuffed a shirt he’d gotten from another man into the gas tank of the vehicle and tried to ignite it on May 31, 2020. The protest earlier that day in respo…
Disgraced Ex-Dentist From Morris County Takes Guilty Plea In DEA Meth Raid Disgraced Ex-Dentist From Morris County Takes Guilty Plea In DEA Meth Raid
Disgraced Ex-Dentist From Morris County Takes Guilty Plea In DEA Meth Raid A disgraced former dentist who already had a criminal history involving crystal meth admitted having the drug when the DEA raided his Morris County home last year. Frederick Bailey, 61, pleaded guilty via videoconference with a federal judge in Newark to having and conspiring to distribute methamphetamine, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Federal agents arrested Bailey, of Denville, after finding “methamphetamine and packaging materials throughout the residence” during a January 2020 raid. He already had a criminal history at the time. Local police arrested Bailey in 2016 after…
Mobster Sent To Federal Prison For Beating Husband Of ‘Real Housewives Of NJ’ Cast Member Mobster Sent To Federal Prison For Beating Husband Of ‘Real Housewives Of NJ’ Cast Member
Mobster Sent To Federal Prison For Beating Husband Of ‘Real Housewives Of NJ’ Cast Member A Lucchese crime soldier was sentenced Thursday to a plea-bargained 2½ years in federal prison for throwing the current husband of former “Real Housewives of New Jersey” cast member Dina Manzo a beating in exchange for an extravagant gift from her well-known ex. John Perna, 44, of Cedar Grove testified last October that Thomas Manzo hired him in 2015 to assault David Cantin, who was dating Dina at the time. Perna told a federal judge he was armed with a “slapjack” when he and another Lucchese associate followed Cantin to a Passaic County strip mall and attacked him on July 18, 2015. In exc…
Hudson Ex-Con Who Shot At Moving Car Headed To Federal Prison For 5 Years, No Parole Hudson Ex-Con Who Shot At Moving Car Headed To Federal Prison For 5 Years, No Parole
Hudson Ex-Con Who Shot At Moving Car Headed To Federal Prison For 5 Years, No Parole A Jersey City ex-con who fired at a moving car is headed to federal prison for a plea-bargained five years, authorities said Tuesday. Jamel Armfield, 20, already had three felony convictions on his record when he squeezed off nine rounds from a .45-caliber Springfield Armory handgun at the vehicle on Gates Avenue last June, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. A nearby surveillance camera captured images of the shooting, she said. Whom Armfield was firing at, and why, were never determined, the U.S. attorney said. He tried to hide the gun, she added, but Jersey City police found it…
NJ Con Man Who Swindled Elderly Out Of $2M Headed To Fed Pen NJ Con Man Who Swindled Elderly Out Of $2M Headed To Fed Pen
NJ Con Man Who Swindled Elderly Out Of $2M Headed To Fed Pen A confessed Somerset County con man is headed to federal prison for 6½ years for swindling elderly investors out of $2 million that he used, in part, to pay for his daughter’s college tuition and sorority fees. For nearly a decade, ex-financial advisor Daniel Rivera, 51, told primarily elderly investors that his Robbins Lane Properties was “staffed by experienced real estate professionals, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Rivera promised a “guaranteed monthly income” thanks to a rate of return based on secure investments, she added. The truth, Honig said, was: “Robbins Lane had …