White Collar Crime News

Five Charged with Stealing More Than $113,000 from New Jersey’s Unemployment Fund September 4, 2009

The AG’s office has been busy for the past few weeks with unemployment fraud cases.  I just picked up a case last month myself but it seems like my case will work out with a  repayment and no criminal prosecution.   New Jersey sends out notices to those under investigation.  How a person responds to that notice can often have a great impact on the future of the case.

Fellow attorneys should take note of the dollar amount in these cases and that none of them are below $10,000.  There reaches a point where the dollar amount is so high that it is hard to argue that this was a mistake; or that is the State’s theory anyway.

Criminal Justice Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni noted that the charges resulted from cooperative investigations by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development and the Division of Criminal Justice Major Crimes Bureau.

State v. Carlos G. Ortiz. Ortiz, 41, of Neptune, was charged in a Sept. 1 state grand jury indictment with third-degree theft by deception and fourth-degree unsworn falsification. Ortiz filed for unemployment insurance benefits each December between 2001 and 2004. According to the indictment, while he was collecting on each of these claims, Ortiz was also allegedly earning wages. By not reporting the earnings to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Ortiz allegedly collected $29,877 in unemployment insurance benefits to which he was not entitled.

The Division of Criminal Justice Major Crimes Bureau obtained the following state grand jury indictments during the month of August:

State v. Sauerio Bilotta. Bilotta, 43, of Bayonne, was charged in an Aug. 25 state grand jury indictment with third-degree theft by deception and fourth-degree unsworn falsification. The indictment alleges that, while collecting on unemployment insurance benefits claims that he filed in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004, Bilotta was earning wages. According to the indictment, Bilotta did not report his earnings to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development and consequently stole $20,634 in unemployment insurance benefits.

State v. Mirjana Ivkov. Ivkov, 36, of Wayne, was charged in a separate Aug. 25 state grand jury indictment with third-degree theft by deception and fourth-degree unsworn falsification. Ivkov filed claims for unemployment insurance benefits in November 2002, December 2004 and February 2005. According to the indictment, Ivkov was allegedly earning wages while she was collecting on these claims. By not reporting the wages to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Ivkov allegedly collected $15,885 in unemployment insurance benefits to which she was not entitled.

State v. John K. Calhoun. Calhoun, 45, of Linden, was charged in an Aug. 5 state grand jury indictment with third-degree theft by deception and fourth-degree unsworn falsification. The indictment alleges that Calhoun was earning wages while collecting on unemployment insurance benefits claims that he filed for in February 2003 and February 2004. The indictment charges that, as a result of failing to notify the Department of Labor and Workforce Development of his earnings, Calhoun allegedly stole $18,942 in unemployment insurance benefits.

The Division of Criminal Justice Major Crimes Bureau obtained the following guilty plea via a criminal accusation during the month of August:

State v. Eunice Rivers. Rivers, aka Eunice Lloyd, aka Eunice Lloyd-Rivers, 42, of Jersey City, pleaded guilty on Aug. 4 to third-degree theft by deception. Rivers admitted that while collecting on unemployment insurance benefits claims, she was earning wages. Rivers further admitted that, by failing to notify the Department of Labor and Workforce Development of the wages, she collected $28,274 in unemployment insurance benefits to which she was not entitled.