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TAPPIN' IT: Manager Admits Embezzling $4.5M From NJ Brain Injury Fund For Sex With Gal Pals TAPPIN' IT: Manager Admits Embezzling $4.5M From NJ Brain Injury Fund For Sex With Gal Pals
Tappin' IT: Manager Admits Embezzling $4.5M From NJ Brain Injury Fund For Sex With Gal Pals The now-former manager of a fund for traumatic brain injury patients in New Jersey admitted diverting more than $4.5 million in public money to women he was having sex with, authorities said. Harry Pizutelli, 64, of Edison, pleaded guilty by videoconference to conspiring to commit health care fraud before a federal judge in Trenton, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced on Wednesday, Jan. 4. One of the women who benefitted from the scheme, Maritza Flores, 45, of Toms River, pleaded guilty to the same charge, as well as to tax evasion, Sellinger said. In exchange, Pizutelli had amorou…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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2 PA Nursing Facilities Falsified Records In 2 Conspiracy Schemes: USDOJ Indictment 2 PA Nursing Facilities Falsified Records In 2 Conspiracy Schemes: USDOJ Indictment
2 PA Nursing Facilities Falsified Records In 2 Conspiracy Schemes: Usdoj Indictment Five individuals and two for-profit nursing facilities in Pennsylvania have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh in connection to two conspiracy schemes, authorities say.  Brighton Rehab and Mount Lebanon Rehabilitation and Wellness Center, along with the following people were indicted on 15 counts, US Attorney Cindy Chung and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced on Tuesday, August 9: Sam Halper, 39, of Miami Beach, Florida. Eva Hamilton, 35, of Beaver. Susan Gilbert, 61, of Lawrence. Michelle Romeo, 46, of Hillsville. Johnna Haller, 41, of Monaca. The I…

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by Jillian Pikora
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Theft Of $8.2M In HIV Meds From NJ Vets Hospital Gets Rx Tech 2½ Years Without Parole Theft Of $8.2M In HIV Meds From NJ Vets Hospital Gets Rx Tech 2½ Years Without Parole
Theft Of $8.2M In HIV Meds From NJ Vets Hospital Gets Rx Tech 2½ Years Without Parole UPDATE: A former pharmacy tech was sentenced to a plea-bargained 57 months in federal prison Thursday for stealing $8.2 million worth of HIV medications from a New Jersey veterans hospital to sell on the black market, authorities said. Lisa M. Hoffman, 50, of Orange, will have to serve just about all of the term because there’s no parole in the federal prison system. U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas also sentenced Hoffman on Thursday to three years of supervised release while ordering her to pay the full $8.29 million in restitution – and to forfeit an additional $450,000. Hoffman wa…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Feds: Postal Supervisor In NJ Sold 400 Vax Cards That She Printed At Work Feds: Postal Supervisor In NJ Sold 400 Vax Cards That She Printed At Work
Feds: Postal Supervisor In NJ Sold 400 Vax Cards That She Printed At Work A U.S. Postal Service supervisor from New Jersey openly sold 400 bogus COVID vaccine cards that she printed at her job -- while claiming that a graphic design degree was "paying off" for her, federal authorities charged. Lisa Hammell, 39, of the South Jersey town of Turnersville, sold the cards for from $20 to $100 after advertising them on social media, an indictment returned by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Newark says. Two of the buyers were from New Jersey and another was a federal employee in Virginia whose mother needed the card because she worked in a hospital and had to be …

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Ex-Employee Admits Stealing $10M Worth Of HIV Meds From NJ Veterans Hospital Ex-Employee Admits Stealing $10M Worth Of HIV Meds From NJ Veterans Hospital
Ex-Employee Admits Stealing $10M Worth Of HIV Meds From NJ Veterans Hospital A former pharmacy tech admitted stealing nearly $10 million worth of HIV medications from a New Jersey veterans hospital and selling them to a fence from Lyndhurst. Lisa M. Hoffman, 49, of Orange, used her authority to order excessive amounts of medication for the outpatient pharmacy from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in East Orange, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Surveillance cameras helped show how she “placed large orders for HIV medication, purportedly on behalf of the VAMC,” the U.S. attorney said. “After the medications arrived, Hoffman waited until co-worke…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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HOOP SCHEMES: Onetime Phenom, Ex-NJ Net Among 18 Charged By Feds With $4M NBA Health Care Fraud HOOP SCHEMES: Onetime Phenom, Ex-NJ Net Among 18 Charged By Feds With $4M NBA Health Care Fraud
Hoop Schemes: Onetime Phenom, Ex-NJ Net Among 18 Charged By Feds With $4M NBA Health Care Fraud Disgraced onetime phenom Sebastian Telfair and more than a dozen other NBA veterans are charged with scamming the league's health plan out of millions of dollars, federal authorities announced Thursday. Darius Miles and Glen Davis are also among the 18 defendants named in an indictment returned by a grand jury in Manhattan that alleges they filed nearly $4 million in fake medical and dental claims to the NBA’s Health and Welfare Benefit Plan for active and retired players. Former New Jersey Nets shooting guard Terrence Williams ran the scam, supplying letters that justified medical services…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Feds In NJ Charge Rockland Doc, Wife With $1.3M Genetic Testing Scheme Feds In NJ Charge Rockland Doc, Wife With $1.3M Genetic Testing Scheme
Feds In NJ Charge Rockland Doc, Wife With $1.3M Genetic Testing Scheme COVID-19 hardly fazed a Rockland doctor who, with his wife, continued to collect bribes and kickbacks in exchange for ordering millions of dollars in genetic tests from his offices in Pennsylvania, a federal grand jury in Newark charged. Yitzchok “Barry” Kurtzer, 61,and Robin Kurtzer, 60, both of Monsey, collected monthly cash kickbacks and bribes ranging in exchange for “collecting DNA samples from Medicare patients and sending them for genetic tests to clinical laboratories in New Jersey and Pennsylvania,” Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Rachael Honig said. The payoffs ranged up $5,00…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Feds: NJ Veterans Hospital Employee Caught On Camera Stealing $8.2M Worth Of HIV Meds Feds: NJ Veterans Hospital Employee Caught On Camera Stealing $8.2M Worth Of HIV Meds
Feds: NJ Veterans Hospital Employee Caught On Camera Stealing $8.2M Worth Of HIV Meds A now-former employee stole $8.2 million worth of HIV medications from  a New Jersey veterans hospital pharmacy that she sold to a fence from Bergen County, federal authorities said Wednesday. Surveillance video showed pharmacy technician Lisa M. Hoffman of Orange “regularly taking dozens of bottles of HIV medications" from the shelves of the outpatient pharmacy at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in East Orange, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. The video then shows her “placing them in a white mail bin, and then transferring the medications from the mail bin to he…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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PA Nursing Home Admin Indicted On Federal Charges For Health Care Fraud PA Nursing Home Admin Indicted On Federal Charges For Health Care Fraud
PA Nursing Home Admin Indicted On Federal Charges For Health Care Fraud The former administrator of a Pennsylvania nursing home has been indicted on federal charges of health care fraud, state authorities said. Susan Gilbert, 60 -- Mount Lebanon Rehabilitation and Wellness Center, a sister nursing home to Brighton -- has been charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, health care fraud, and obstruction of a federal audit, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and U.S. Attorney Scott Brady said Thursday. Gilbert is accused of directing employees to falsify records to give the appearance that the facility met federal and state staffing r…

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by Cecilia Levine