Find Your Daily Voice
Roommate, Boyfriend Of Weymouth Woman Found Slain Charged With Financial Crimes: Police
The roommate of a woman found slain in Weymouth on Monday, April 1, and her boyfriend have been arrested on financial crimes police discovered while investigating the killing, authorities said.
Kelly Shaw, age 44, and her boyfriend John “Jack” Harper, 45, will be arraigned Thursday, April 4, on charges of theft valued over $1,200, uttering forged checks, and other offenses, authorities said.
They have not been charged with homicide, authorities reiterated.
Christine Ruth Mello, who lived on Lake Street, had been reported missing before her body was recovered at her home, …
Diamond District Operators From NJ, Long Island Busted In $673M Money Laundering Scheme: Feds
Four businessmen from New Jersey and one from Long Island laundered millions of dollars a day in cash through fronts they set up in New York City’s Diamond District, federal authorities charged.
Federal agents tied the quintet to $673 million in dirty money laundered through the illicit operations over the past four years, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said.
In exchange, Raj Vaidya, 26; Rakesh Vaidya, 51; Shrey Vaidya, 23; and Neel Patel, 26, all of Edison; and Youssef Janfar, aka “Joe Rodeo,” 57, of Great Neck, NY collected sizable fees, he said.
The three Vaidyas and P…
3 Women Stole $71K From Morris County Atlantic Health Using Bogus Timecard Scheme: Prosecutor
A former Atlantic Health System employee and two other women were arrested after concocting a scheme involving bogus time cards that resulted in the theft of more than $71,000, authorities in Morris County announced.
Jessica Addison, 39, and Kaleigh Kalb, 21, of Chester, as well as Isabella Valentine, 21, of Mendham Township, were charged with theft and conspiracy to commit theft, Morris County Prosecutor Robert J. Carroll said in a joint release.
The investigation began in November 2021, when authorities were tipped off to a “suspected employee theft of payroll funds” out of the Morris Pla…
Hackensack Teacher From Oradell Charged With Pocketing $300,000 In Ponzi Scheme
A Hackensack schoolteacher from Oradell ran a Ponzi scheme that fleeced investors of $300,000 that she used for herself, authorities announced Monday.
Suzette Hart, 54, “solicited multiple investors for various high-yield, well-known investment opportunities knowing that the investments were fraudulent” over a five-year period, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said.
Hart, who most recently taught at Hackensack’s Fairmount School, then “disbursed money from one investor to other investors, which reinforced the deception that the investor’s money had been properly invested and was produc…
Bergen Pair Charged With Laundering $5.7 Million
The owners of several businesses in Leonia and Palisades Park laundered $5.7 million to avoid paying taxes on it, said authorities who busted them.
Guatemalan nationals Juan Quevedo-Garcia, 40, and Magda Quevedo-Garcia, 35, were booked into the Bergen County Jail on Thursday and ordered released by a judge hours later, records show.
Both are scheduled for first appearances Monday in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack.
Juan Quevedo-Garcia, of Fairview, owns commercial framing and excavation businesses in Palisades Park, while Magda Quevedo-Garcia, of Palisades Park, owns and op…
Coin Dealer From Long Island Charged In $330K Sales Scheme
A coin dealer from Long Island has been charged in connection with a $330,000 cross-country coin consignment and sales scheme that targeted coin dealers and private collectors from California to Long Island.
Harold Adamo, 53, of Fort Salonga, was charged on Wednesday, Sept. 11, on four counts of grand larceny, scheme to defraud, and four counts of issuing a bad check, said the Nassau County District Attorney's Office.
According to the indictment, from April 2017 through March 2019, Adamo was allegedly engaged in a scheme to defraud money, gold and collectible coins from individuals an…
Fair Lawn Businessman Charged With Pocketing $250G From Investor
A self-employed Fair Lawn contractor embezzled $250,000 from an investor, authorities charged.
Wilfried Werner, 56, who also works in real estate, received the money as a property investment but used it for himself instead, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said.
Members of Musella’s Financial Crimes Unit arrested him in Fair Lawn on Tuesday, the prosecutor said.
Werner, previously of Wyckoff, was charged with theft by deception and released pending an Aug. 7 a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack, the prosecutor said.
Records show several judgments agai…
Pistol-Wielding Bridgeport Man Sparks Standoff At Fairfield Bank
An area man and woman are behind bars following an intense police standoff with the man inside a bank where he pulled a pistol on a Fairfield detective while being questioned about a bank fraud incident.
The standoff went down around 4 p.m., Tuesday, April 23, when officers with the Fairfield Police Detective Bureau were conducting an investigation into bank fraud related to the theft of approximately $120,000 from an elderly person from Texas, said Fairfield Lt. John Bucherati.
The suspects, identified as Carl Myers, 46, and Tanika Haase, 26, both of Bridgeport, we…
Prosecutor: Woodcliff Lake Court-Appointed Guardian Pocketed $50,000 From Incapacitated Wade
A construction foreman from Woodcliff Lake serving as a court-appointed guardian pocketed $50,000 from his incapacitated ward and a second victim, said authorities who arrested him.
Over the past 4½ years, Darren Pavesi “used his ward’s financial assets for his own benefit, misappropriating funds to make unauthorized payments to himself and to pay his own personal expenses,” Acting Bergen County Prosecutor Dennis Calo said Friday.
Pavesi, 55, of Prospect Avenue, was charged with two counts of theft following an investigation by Calo’s Financial Crimes Unit, the prosecutor said.
He was rele…
Con Artist Scams Stamford Woman Of $9K, Police Say
A man was arrested for scamming a 90-year-old Stamford woman out of $9,000, Stamford Police said.
Luis A. Hiraldo-Fernandez, 31, of Hackensack, was picked up by members of the Stamford Department Financial Crimes Unit on a warrant connected to the scam.
Hiraldo-Fernandez is suspected in the participation of a phone scam against a 90-year-old female which defrauded her of $9,000 while posing as an acquaintance, police said.
With the joint cooperation of the Fairlawn New Jersey Police Department, Hiraldo-Fernandez was extradited to and held on a $50,000 court set bond and given a court date …
Dumont Tax Preparer Fleeced Family Of $200,000, Authorities Charge
DUMONT, N.J. – A tax preparer from Dumont swindled a family out of $200,000, said authorities who arrested him Tuesday.
Stephen Adler, 75, “misappropriated the victims’ money for his own personal use," Acting Bergen County Prosecutor Dennis Calo said.
Calo said members of his Financial Crimes Unit last June “received a complaint from a family who had lost approximately $200,000 in what they believed to be an investment scheme operated by their tax preparer.”
Between 2014 and 2015, he said, Adler “persuaded them to invest in what he described as a secure investment vehicle [that] would…
