Monday, April 16, 2012
Federal investigation could have implications in towns across New Jersey
- NEWS
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Monday, April 16, 2012
By Joe Tyrrell, NJSpotlight.com The guilty pleas have trickled out in dribs and drabs: three in August, two in February, and another in March. Slowly, a federal investigation has mapped a confluence of desperation and profit, inattention and daring in one of New Jersey's most extensive if low-key real estate markets, the sale of municipal liens for unpaid taxes. In recent months, six regular purchasers of the liens have pleaded guilty to rigging the bidding system in a scheme that began operating at least as far back as 1998. So far, two lawsuits filed by property owners have alleged that participants and associated companies have defrauded them. Investigators have acknowledged little beyond the bare-bones admissions in the pleas, but a …
North Bergen prosecutor, former law partner of the Fort Lee mayor also charged in alleged drug scheme.
Two Edgewater men imported as much as 1,000 pounds of marijuana into New Jersey from Northern California since the start of 2012, authorities said Saturday. Matthew Martin, 43, and Danny Saleh, 34, made bulk purchases of marijuana in the "Emerald Triangle" of Northern California during bi-monthly trips, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said in a release. The Emerald Triangle is perhaps the most fertile marijuana growing region in the country and supplies much of California's legal marijuana. The men would ship the drug back to New Jersey and Brooklyn via the post office, authorities said. Authorities intercepted the last shipment from California, seizing boxes holding about 100 pounds of pot, Molinelli said. The marijuana, Molinelli…
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Prosecutor's Office targets 12 massage parlors across the county.
- POLICE & FIRE
- Myles Ma
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Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Bergen County authorities arrested 27 people and seized more than $27,000 in a weeklong prostitution sweep, Prosecutor John Molinelli said Monday. Half a dozen women were working as prostitutes at a Paramus hotel, Molinelli said. "Targeted during this investigation were numerous illegal massage parlors and in-call prostitution operations that have been operating in area hotels," Molinelli said in a statement. Police arrested 11 people on March 15 as part of the anti-prostitution initiative. The 11 people were either prostitutes or their drivers, Molinelli said. Hanna Young, 38, of Queens, N.Y., Yan Zhang, 43, of Queens, N.Y., Joann Marsaka, 24, of Bayonne, Amanda Blackwell, 23, of Emporia, Va., Sofia Matallana, 35, of Spring Valley, and …
Onetime basketball standout arrested alongside ‘James Bong Gang’ burglars, authorities say.
A former pro basketball player from Englewood arrested after a high-speed police chase last year pleaded not guilty Monday to burglarizing homes in Sparta and Jefferson, NJ.com reported. Sean Banks, 26, was arrested along with three other alleged burglars Aug. 5. Authorities said the four men, including one from Teaneck, broke into homes in Sparta and Jefferson, fled local police in a chase before crashing a stolen SUV they were riding in. Aasim Boone, 29, his brother Akeem Boone, 27, along with Teaneck resident Jerry Montgomery, 31, were arrested with Banks, Sparta police have said. Prosecutors allege the four are part of an offshoot of the James Bond Gang, a burglary ring targeting high-end homes in New Jersey and New York. Banks is a …
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Jury unable to reach unanimous verdict in case of Teaneck man.
Federal fraud charges against a Teaneck accountant and his business partner have been dismissed, according to court papers filed in early March. The accountant, Andrew Muhlstock was charged with wire fraud for allegedly taking money from clients for payroll taxes and instead using it for operating expenses at his former payroll services company, Total Time Solutions. Then-business partner Mark Holzwanger was also accused in the 2010 indictment. U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano found federal prosecutors did not provide sufficient evidence to allow a jury to determine that Muhlstock and Holzwanger engaged in the fraud charge, according to the judge’s March 8 opinion. A jury was deadlocked on Muhlstock, court papers say. Holzwanger was …
Friday, March 30, 2012
Lawsuit claims fraud at Bergen Regional Medical Center.
A former Teaneck Township Council member and political consultant held a $95,000 a year no-show job at a Bergen County agency where colleagues were unsure what he did outside of occasionally signing paperwork, documents filed in federal civil court Wednesday allege. Elnatan Rudolph, who was elected to the Teaneck council in 2006 and once worked as an assistant to the former executive director of the Bergen County Improvement Authority, rarely told BCIA staffers where he was and spent little time at the office, the court papers claim. The allegations came to light in an amendment to a lawsuit filed by the BCIA. The suit alleges the private operator of Bergen Regional Medical Center worked with two elevator repair companies to defraud the …
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Employees didn't have valid social security numbers, IRS says.
The owner of a Teaneck landscaping business pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to failing to pay and withhold payroll taxes through off the books payments to his employees, the Internal Revenue Service said. Park Ridge resident Michael Florio admitted paying “numerous” employees who did not have valid social security numbers for work in 2007 and 2008 at Florio and Sons Environmental Services, Inc, formerly Florio Landscape Contractors, the IRS said. Florio paid these workers in cash, checks payable to cash, or checks made payable directly to the employees. Florio made cash payments to employees totaling around $1.1 million in 2007 and 2008, the IRS said. For the tax quarters ending March 31, 2007 and in December 2008, he failed to pay…
Friday, March 23, 2012
In statement released Friday, family says in dicey digital world, young people need to know actions have consequences
The parents of late Ridgewood teen Tyler Clementi said in a statement Friday they're pleased with a jury verdict that concluded their son was targeted by his college roommate because he was gay. "They reached their decision based on the facts shown by the evidence," the family of Tyler Clementi said in a press release. "At the conclusion of the trial, the defense’s explanation of what happened was simply not believable." Dharun Ravi, 20, was convicted on 15 counts, including a hate crime, related to incidents in which he spied on his rooommate with a webcam in the fall of 2010 and attempted to do so again several days later. He planned to broadcast Clementi's romantic encounters with another man to others, a jury found. Clementi, a gifted …
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Trio had burglarized a Warren Township home before the pursuit and crash, prosecutor's office says.
Three burglars, including two from Teaneck, led police on a high-speed chase before the vehicle in which they were riding crashed on an Interstate 78 exit ramp in Warren Township Saturday night, Somerset County authorities said Monday. Leon Roberts, 44, of Rock Creek Terrace in Englewood, Marion Crowell, 47, of Voorhees Street in Teaneck and Steven Saulter, 44, of Van Buskirk Road in Teaneck, were each charged with third-degree burglary, authorities said. Saulter, the driver of the vehicle, was also charged with second-degree eluding authorities, the prosecutor's office said. Bernards Township police said Monday morning that the vehicle had entered I-78 eastbound at Exit 33 in Bernards after fleeing from a motor vehicle stop. Police …
Monday, March 19, 2012
US Attorney says Mahwah accomplice has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing
A Sussex County woman was convicted on fraud and money laundering charges for her role in a mortgage scheme based in Bergen County towns including Mahwah and Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey US Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced in a release. Crystal Paling, 52, of Hamburg, was found guilty in a federal court in Trenton of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, Fishman said. One of her accomplices, Daniel Verdia, 54, of Mahwah, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering, and is awaiting sentencing. According to Fishman’s release, Verdia and other “co-conspirators” throughout the area filed false and fraudulent loan applications in real estate transactions. The …
Peter
11:08 am on Wednesday, April 18, 2012
This is a nice report on protecting property owner rights, but what is missing is the fact that if towns can't sell tax liens to investors, the property tax burden for those who DO pay their taxes is going to rise (more taxes from less taxpayers). Towns sell the liens to balance budgets - and if they can't cover the taxes owed from delinquent taxpapers, everyone else's taxes are going to go up to… more ›