HOME INVASION: Seven Captured, Charged With Posing As NYPD To Tie Up And Rob Fair Lawn Resident HOME INVASION: Seven Captured, Charged With Posing As NYPD To Tie Up And Rob Fair Lawn Resident
Home Invasion: Seven Captured, Charged With Posing As Nypd To Tie Up And Rob Fair Lawn Resident UPDATE: Two men accused of posing as law enforcement officers to rob a Fair Lawn resident at gunpoint during a home invasion last fall have been brought to Bergen County after being arrested out of state. Whether local or federal authorities will be prosecuting them and four alleged accomplices -- three of whom have already been released -- remains an open question, at least publicly. All seven were arrested in New York State last month and charged in a Nov. 17, 2022 home invasion in which residents were zip-tied and an undisclosed amount of cash and jewelry was stolen. The two main defend…
Hudson Cryptothief Who Swapped Victim's SIM Card To Steal $500G Goes To Fed Pen Hudson Cryptothief Who Swapped Victim's SIM Card To Steal $500G Goes To Fed Pen
Hudson Cryptothief Who Swapped Victim's SIM Card To Steal $500G Goes To Fed Pen A 20-year-old Hudson County man must spend nearly two years in federal prison for his role in stealing more than $500,000 worth of cryptocurrency by swapping a SIM card from the victim’s phone. Ebrahem Adeeb of Bayonne must serve out just about all of the plea-bargained 21-month sentence because there’s no parole in the federal prison system. His deal with the government also requires him to pay $504,418 in restitution to his victims, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said following the sentencing on Tuesday, May 23. Adeeb and his conspirators swiped the subscriber identity module from the…
Murder-For-Hire: NJ Man Get 8 Years, No Parole, For Hiring 'Hit Man' To Whack Ex And Daughter Murder-For-Hire: NJ Man Get 8 Years, No Parole, For Hiring 'Hit Man' To Whack Ex And Daughter
Murder-For-Hire: NJ Man Get 8 Years, No Parole, For Hiring 'Hit Man' To Whack Ex And Daughter A 69-year-old New Jersey man must spend the next eight years in federal prison for paying a purported hit man to kill his ex-wife and her daughter. Michael Stewart of Monroe Township in Middlesex County must serve nearly the entire plea-bargained sentence handed down this week because there's no parole in the federal prison system. Stewart thought he had someone he could trust when he asked for help finding someone he could pay for the killings. He "regularly traveled to Baltimore and used a cellphone while out of state to communicate with the confidential source and others," U.S. Attorney…
NJ-Bred Fugees Founder Pras Michél Convicted In Federal Foreign-Influence Trial NJ-Bred Fugees Founder Pras Michél Convicted In Federal Foreign-Influence Trial
Nj-bred Fugees Founder Pras Michél Convicted In Federal Foreign-Influence Trial UPDATE: New Jersey-bred rapper and producer Pras Michél, best known as a founding member of the Fugees, was convicted by federal jurors in what the government called a "clandestine foreign influence campaign scheme." The Grammy-winning '90s hip-hop star was found guilty of 10 counts following an influence-peddling trial in Washington, DC, that featured high-profile witnesses such as Leonardo DiCaprio and former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The Justice Department accused Michél, 50, of collecting millions of dollars from Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho to launder money embezzled fro…
Armed Robber Fires Shot In Passaic Pharmacy Holdup, Employees Still Don't Comply: Feds Armed Robber Fires Shot In Passaic Pharmacy Holdup, Employees Still Don't Comply: Feds
Armed Robber Fires Shot In Passaic Pharmacy Holdup, Employees Still Don't Comply: Feds Talk about gutsy. An ex-con from Paterson fired a pair of shots in a drug store robbery, then fled a second pharmacy holdup in Passaic empty-handed when employees there refused to comply, said federal authorities who now have him in custody. Antonio Rivera, 46, demanded Percocet, morphine and oxycodone at gunpoint in an unidentified Paterson drug store this past Feb. 8, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said. An employee complied after Rivera fired a shot, Sellinger said. Another handed over cash from a register after Rivera squeezed off a second round, the U.S. attorney sa…
Elderly Man Robbed Of $37K In 'Tech Support Scam' In South Jersey: Police Elderly Man Robbed Of $37K In 'Tech Support Scam' In South Jersey: Police
Elderly Man Robbed Of $37K In 'Tech Support Scam' In South Jersey: Police Police say an elderly man was robbed of $37,000 in a "tech support scam." The 31-year-old "technician" placed a virus on the elderly man's computer and posed as a Microsoft specialist for PNC Bank, the FBI and the Treasury Department, according to Gloucester Township Police. When the victim realized he had been scammed he contacted the Gloucester Township Police Department. The victim still had daily contact with the suspect.  The suspect was contacted by Gloucester police who were posing as the victim. Another cash delivery was coordinated for the suspect to pick up at the victim’s r…
NJ Teacher Admits Posing As Woman To Lure Dozens Of Boys Into Sending Nude Vids, Pics NJ Teacher Admits Posing As Woman To Lure Dozens Of Boys Into Sending Nude Vids, Pics
NJ Teacher Admits Posing As Woman To Lure Dozens Of Boys Into Sending Nude Vids, Pics UPDATE: A former Union County grade-school teacher and youth soccer coach from Morristown admitted in federal court that he posed as a woman online to lure at least 70 underage boys into sending him nude photos and videos, authorities said. Steven Brooks, 36, who’d taught fifth grade at Washington Elementary School in Summit and helped run the Livingston Soccer Club for nearly a decade, used other images of child pornography to solicit new material, an FBI complaint says. One of the videos he received from an underage victim “depicted the minor masturbating,” it says. FBI agents reported f…
Online Sting Scheme: Indian National Admits Scamming Elderly In NJ, Around World Online Sting Scheme: Indian National Admits Scamming Elderly In NJ, Around World
Online Sting Scheme: Indian National Admits Scamming Elderly In NJ, Around World UPDATE: An Indian national who participated in an international conspiracy that preyed on senior citizens in New Jersey and throughout the U.S. was sentenced to a plea-bargained 33 months in federal prison, authorities said. Ashish Bajaj, 29, of India, will have to serve out the entire term because there’s no parole in the federal prison system. U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty also sentenced Bajaj to two years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $2.4 million in restitution to his victims. Bajaj lived in different parts of the United States, including New Rochelle, NY, and Anahe…
'Wanna Meet?' Ex-Jersey Shore High School Sportswriter Takes Plea In Underage Sex Luring Case 'Wanna Meet?' Ex-Jersey Shore High School Sportswriter Takes Plea In Underage Sex Luring Case
'Wanna Meet?' Ex-Jersey Shore High School Sportswriter Takes Plea In Underage Sex Luring Case A former high school sportswriter from Ocean County admitted on Wednesday that he trafficked child porn off his cellphone and repeatedly pressed a minor to send him sexually explicit images, authorities said. Kevin Van Pelt, 33, of Lakehurst, was originally arrested in May 2019 after Gloucester County prosecutor's detectives and police in Woolwich Township said they found that he'd sought a meeting with a 14-year-old girl for sex through Snapchat and Instagram. Van Pelt, who worked part-time for NJ Advance Media – the parent company of NJ.com and the Star-Ledger – told the girl he’d been a …
Mom Found Burned Dead In Vacant Lot ID'd As NJ Woman — Now Police Hope To Find Her Daughter Mom Found Burned Dead In Vacant Lot ID'd As NJ Woman — Now Police Hope To Find Her Daughter
Mom Found Burned Dead In Vacant Lot ID'd As NJ Woman — Now Police Hope To Find Her Daughter Known for 30 years as the "Girl with the Scorpion Tattoo," the unidentified victim found brutally murdered on Staten Island has been identified as a New Jersey woman — with a daughter whom authorities are hoping to find. Christine Belusko of Clifton was handcuffed, strangled, beaten and burned in a Staten Island lot, the Richmond County District Attorney’s Office said. In the weeks leading up to her killing, she had been staying at a Mount Airy Lodge near Mount Pocono, PA, authorities said. Now, investigators hope to find Belusko's daughter, Christa Nicole, who would have been two…
Atlantic City Councilman In Bigger Trouble Now, Charged By Feds With Voter, Unemployment Fraud Atlantic City Councilman In Bigger Trouble Now, Charged By Feds With Voter, Unemployment Fraud
Atlantic City Councilman In Bigger Trouble Now, Charged By Feds With Voter, Unemployment Fraud An Atlantic City councilman who was accused last year of assaulting his wife and endangering his daughter was busted by federal authorities for voter and unemployment fraud. MD Hossain Morshed, 49, a Democrat who represents the city’s Fourth Ward, was charged in a complaint unsealed Friday, March 17, in U.S. District Court in Camden. Morshed falsified voter registrations, lied to the FBI and filed bogus unemployment benefit claims with the state, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. According to Sellinger, Morshed gave a prospective voter in the June 2019 primary a pre-filled voter regi…
Phucket Fugitive Returned To Face Charges In NJ Deli Fraud Scheme Phucket Fugitive Returned To Face Charges In NJ Deli Fraud Scheme
Phucket Fugitive Returned To Face Charges In NJ Deli Fraud Scheme A fugitive from Thailand was returned to the United States to face charges in a massive market manipulation scheme involving a New Jersey deli company whose stock was once valued at an illogical $100 million, federal authorities announced. A U.S. District Court magistrate judge in Newark ordered one-time Hong Kong businessman Peter Coker Jr. held after he was flown in custody from a Bangkok jail. Coker, 54, formerly of North Carolina, was seized at a hotel in the resort area of Phuket in mid-January following the arrests of his father, Peter Coker Sr., and James Patten in North Carolina. C…