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Mortgage Fraud: NJ Developer, Attorney Admit Swindling Lenders Out Of $3.5M
A New Jersey real estate developer and a lawyer admitted running a multi-layered mortgage fraud that cost banks more than $3.5 million in losses, federal authorities said.
Developer Victor Santos, 63, of Watchung, paid stand-in "straw" buyers $5,000 each to first purchase a dozen properties in Newark and then secure tenants to lease them, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
A group of conspirators including him and attorney Fausto Simoes, 69, of Millington, covered the costs -- including fees and mortgage payments, the U.S. attorney said.
"Santos, Simoes, and others also caused the sub…
DIY Dentistry: Truck Driver, Assistant Severely Injure Dental ‘Patient,’ Dumont Police Charge
A dental assistant and an Ecuadorian national who drives a truck for a living were charged with aggravated assault by Dumont police for severely injuring a woman with do-it-yourself at-home dentistry, authorities said.
David Pharaoh Crosby Jupiter, the 44-year-old self-employed trucker, was arrested last Friday, Sept. 23, and sent to the Bergen County Jail only to have a judge release him the next day, records show.
Dental assistant Diego Rodriguez, 32, had already been arrested two weeks ago before being released from headquarters on a summons, Dumont Police Chief Brian Joyce said Tuesday,…
Man Was Paid To Steal More Than $6K In Wiring From Warren County Home Depot, Prosecutor Says
An Essex County man admitted to being paid $500 to shoplift more than $6,000 worth of electrical wiring from a Warren County Home Depot store, authorities said.
Ronald McKenzie, of Quaback Avenue in Irvington, is accused of shoplifting spools of electrical wiring from Home Depot in Mansfield Township during two incidents in July 2022, Warren County Prosecutor James L. Pfeiffer said in a release with local officials on Tuesday, Sept. 13.
The amount shoplifted totals approximately $6,200, Pfeiffer said.
After being confronted, McKenzie allegedly admitted to investigators that he had been pai…
Uber Driver, Accomplices Stage Knifepoint Holdup Of Passenger At Saddle Brook Hotel: Prosecutor
An Uber passenger was robbed at knifepoint outside a Saddle Brook hotel by a man who’d conspired with the female driver and another accomplice to hold him up, authorities said.
Uber driver Karina Eremyan, 30, of Fair Lawn was behind the wheel when ex-con Antonio Bowen, 28, of Fair Lawn put a knife to the passenger’s neck in the parking lot of the Crowne Plaza Saddle Brook hotel off Route 80 around 3:30 a.m. March 23, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said.
Bowen forced the fare to turn over his backpack, which contained $3,000 and other undisclosed items, the prosecutor said Friday.
Th…
Plot Twist: Attendant Helped Plan Gas Station Robbery Off Garden State Parkway, Feds Charge
Federal authorities charged a gas station attendant with planning the robbery of a newly-opened QuickChek where he worked just off the Garden State Parkway.
An indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Newark accuses Tyrone Crutchfield-Davis, 27, of Linden of plotting the Dec. 15, 2019 holdup on North Avenue at Exit 137 in Cranford with three associates.
Authorities had previously identified the other three men -- Wiggins Cadet, 24, and Khalil Brown, 23, of Roselle, and Zyquan McCray, 23, of Linden.
It turns out Crutchfield-Davis -- a former standout high school quarterback with a cri…
