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NY Man Who Assaulted Female Passenger On Flight To Newark Gets 2 Years, No Parole
UPDATE: An upstate New York man who admitted assaulting a fellow passenger on a flight from Denver to Newark must spend two plea-bargained years in federal prison.
Ryan Manuella, 30, of Erie County, “moved to a vacant center seat next to a female passenger, who was sitting in a window seat” on the April 16, 2021 flight, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Manuella, who didn't know the woman, then "touched the passenger without her consent," Sellinger said.
"The victim then yelled at him and left the row of seats," the U.S. attorney said.
Defense attorney Andrew Olesnyck…
Love At First Site: Ex-NJ Couple, Nigerian Wingman Charged In $4.5M Cyberfootsies Scam
A former New Jersey couple and a Nigerian national scammed more than 100 lonely hearts out of $4.5 million in an elaborate online romance scheme, federal authorities charged.
Martins Inalegwu, 34, of Philadelphia and Steincy Mathieu, 26, of Brooklyn cooked up the plot with Moses Chukwuebuka Alexander and several of his Nigerian brethren, an indictment returned by a federal grand jury alleges.
Together, they trolled online dating and social media sites for willing marks, whom they “wooed with words of love” on the phone and in emails, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said.
T…
Marine Corps Vet From NJ Admits Defrauding VA Out Of $119,000, Threatening Agent
A U.S. Marine Corps veteran from New Jersey admitted that he threatened to harm a federal agent after defrauding the VA out of $118,979 in disability benefits, authorities said.
Kamil Wakulik, 38, lied when he claimed that he'd suffered PTSD from active-duty service that included having to recover human remains following natural disasters in the Philippines and Thailand, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said.
Wakulik, who lives in the Morris County community of Long Valley and was in the Corps from 2003 to 2007, wasn't involved in such operations, the U.S. attorney said.
Ba…
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…
Ex-Trump Stalker Gets 6 Years, No Parole, For Threatening Secret Service Agent, Vets Officer
UPDATE: A former longtime stalker of former President Trump must spend nearly six years in federal prison for threatening to assault a Secret Service agent and "shoot up" an officer at a VA hospital in New Jersey.
Frank Monte, 52, of Passaic County, NJ, must serve out just about all of the sentence because there's no parole in the federal court system.
Monte, of the Oak Ridge section of West Milford, "repeatedly called the emergency line of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Police at the VA Lyons hospital campus" in Somerset County, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said on Tuesd…
South Jersey To NY Journey Ends With 250 Pounds Of Coke Seized, Pair In Federal Custody
Federal agents followed a tractor-trailer loaded with nearly 250 pounds of cocaine for more than 75 miles from South Jersey to New York before busting the driver and a co-conspirator in Yonkers, authorities said.
They were right behind when Eddie Velez-Pena, 33, of Yonkers, stopped the tractor-trailer in the Hunterdon County town of Hampton, NJ, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said.
They then followed him and the rig north to the border of Yonkers and the Bronx, the U.S. attorney said.
There Velez-Pena transferred multiple duffle bags to Robin Medina-Fabian, 38, of the Bro…
Feds Charge MD Man In $246,390 401(k) Theft From NJ Employee
A Maryland man conspired with others to steal $246,390 from a New Jersey worker’s 401(k), federal authorities charged.
Oladapo Sunday Ogunbiyi, 40, of Greenbelt, and others secretly tapped into the fund, added a bank account belonging to someone else and began steering money into it, an indictment returned by a grand jury in U.S. District Court alleges.
“Ogunbiyi and others directed that the fraud proceeds be converted into cashier’s checks, which were provided to Ogunbiyi,” U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
“He then deposited the cashier’s checks into bank accounts under his control…
