Mark and Joanne Spulock, who own and operate The Island Guest House on Third Street in Beach Haven, and three other individuals, including Barnegat resident Manny Martinez, were criminally charged by complaint-summons Tuesday, June 2, for filing fraudulent applications for federal relief funds related to Superstorm Sandy. Since March 2014, the state Attorney General’s Office has filed criminal charges against 32 people for allegedly engaging in this type of fraud, Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced.
The office is continuing to aggressively investigate fraud in Sandy relief programs, working jointly with the N.J. Department of Community Affairs and the Offices of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Small Business Administration.
 |
| Photo via Trip Advisor Owners of The Island Guest House have been charged for criminal activity surrounding Superstorm Sandy. |
The individuals who have been charged are alleged, in most cases, to have filed fraudulent applications for relief funds offered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In some cases, they also applied for funds from a Sandy relief program funded by HUD or low-interest disaster loans from the SBA. The HUD funds are administered in New Jersey by the Department of Community Affairs.
“All of these defendants are alleged to have selfishly lied about where they were living at the time of the storm in order to steal Sandy relief funds,” said Hoffman. “We’re sending an unmistakable message that those who fraudulently drain relief funds away from deserving recipients will be exposed and will face criminal charges. Relief administrators regrettably are being forced to police this fraud and recoup misdirected aid, when they should be free to focus entirely on speeding that aid to those who need it most.”
The Spulocks allegedly filed fraudulent applications following Sandy for FEMA assistance, a low-interest SBA disaster-relief loan, and state grants under the Homeowner Resettlement Program and the Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation and Mitigation Program. They also allegedly filed fraudulent applications for Sandy relief funds under programs administered by the N.J. Department of Human Services and the N.J. Department of Labor.
In total, the Spulocks allegedly received approximately $70,866 in relief funds by falsely claiming that their seasonal bed and breakfast, which was damaged in the storm, was their primary residence when Sandy struck. In reality, their primary residence was in Delran, and they spent the winter months in Boca Raton. Their application for an SBA loan was rejected, but they received a total of $38,396 in FEMA relief funds, including $30,209 for home repairs, $1,691 in rental assistance and $6,496 in transitional shelter assistance. They received a $10,000 RSP grant and received $6,584 under the Sandy Homeowner/Renter Assistance Program, which is a temporary relief program administered by the state Department of Human Services designed to assist people who experienced a housing crisis as a result of Sandy.
Joanne Spulock also received $15,866 in Disaster Unemployment Assistance from Oct. 28, 2012 through May 4, 2013, by claiming she was out of work because The Island Guest House was forced out of business by the storm. DUA is a federal program administered in New Jersey by the state Department of Labor, which offers temporary financial assistance to people left unemployed as the result of a federal disaster declared by the president. In reality, the bed and breakfast routinely closed from the end of October until May, so Spulock’s employment was not affected while she was collecting DUA. Both parties are charged with third-degree theft by deception and fourth-degree unsworn falsification.
Martinez allegedly filed a fraudulent application after Sandy for FEMA assistance. He is alleged to have falsely claimed that he was displaced from an apartment on Blaine Avenue in Seaside Heights as a result of the storm and had to relocate to a residence on Barnegat Boulevard in Barnegat. As a result, he received a total of $19,276 in FEMA relief funds, consisting of $16,571 in rental assistance and $2,705 for damaged personal property. It is alleged that, in reality, Martinez did not live at the address in Seaside Heights at the time of the storm. He had lived in Seaside Heights at one time, but had moved to Barnegat two years before Sandy. Martinez allegedly submitted false employment earnings statements to FEMA in support of his application. He is charged with third-degree theft by deception and fourth-degree unsworn falsification.
Third-degree charges carry a sentence of three to five years in state prison and a fine of up to $15,000. Fourth-degree charges carry a sentence of up to 18 months in state prison and a fine of $10,000. The charges are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
“We’re working with our state and federal partners to pursue every lead and charge every offender in these Sandy fraud cases,” said Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice. “We’re taking a very aggressive approach because the Sandy recovery efforts are too important and the sums of money at stake are too great to do anything less.”
“Since the very beginning of the Sandy recovery effort, the staff has done their utmost to be good stewards of public funds and to ensure that assistance gets to Sandy survivors who legitimately qualify for aid,” added DCA Acting Commissioner Charles Richman. “We will continue to be vigilant about reporting those who seek to misuse Sandy recovery funds to the proper authorities.”
The new cases, including those of Peter and Judith Larkin of Yardville, were investigated by detectives of the N.J. Division of Criminal Justice and special agents of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, HUD Office of Inspector General and SBA Office of Inspector General. The N.J. Department of Human Services, N.J. Department of Labor and N.J. Division of Taxation assisted in the investigation of the Spulocks. Deputy Attorneys General Mark C. Kurzawa, Peter Gallagher and Derek Miller are prosecuting the five defendants, under the Supervision of Deputy Attorney General Michael A. Monahan, who is chief of the Financial and Computer Crimes Bureau, and Deputy Attorney General Kurzawa, who is deputy bureau chief. They are working with Lt. David Nolan, Sgt. Fred Weidman and analyst Alison Callery, who are conducting and coordinating the investigations for the Division of Criminal Justice, along with other detectives, including Detective Jack Campanella.
— Kelley Anne Essinger
This article was published in The SandPaper.
No comments:
Post a Comment