TRENTON
- Attorney General Peter C. Harvey announced
that the former Personnel Director for
Bloomfield, Essex County, has been sentenced
to state prison and ordered to repay the
Township nearly one-half million dollars
in embezzled public funds after pleading
guilty to official misconduct.
“We
are continuing to aggressively investigate
and prosecute insurance fraud cases that
result in public corruption whether the
acts are committed by appointed or elected
officials,” Attorney General Harvey
said. “This investigation, prosecution,
and sentencing demonstrates the commitment
of the Attorney General’s Office
and the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor
in rooting out corruption at all levels
of government.”
According to Vaughn L. McKoy, Director,
Division of Criminal Justice and Greta
Gooden Brown, Insurance Fraud Prosecutor,
Joanne Tricarico, 56, Robertson Way, Lincoln
Park, Morris County, was sentenced by
Essex County Superior Court Judge Thomas
McCormack on July 7 to five years in state
prison and ordered to pay restitution
in the amount of $482,578.
Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Brown noted
that Tricarico pleaded guilty on May 3
to a criminal Accusation which charged
official misconduct and theft by deception.
In pleading guilty, Tricarico admitted
that while employed as the Bloomfield
Township Personnel Director she was responsible
for managing a publically funded health
insurance benefit account for township
employees. The account, funded by tax
dollars, was designed to reimburse township
employees for pharmacy costs and prescription
drugs. Tricarico admitted that between
January 17, 1997 and March 13, 2004, she
wrote checks for personal use from the
pharmacy account and attempted to cover
up the thefts by making fraudulent entries
in the transaction journals used to record
withdrawals from the pharmacy reimbursement
account.
The Insurance Fraud Prosecutor’s
investigation determined that in 1997
Tricarico stole $2,945; 1998 the amount
was $58,030; in 2000 the amount totaled
$106,950; in 2001, $95,445; and between
2002 and 2004, the amount of funds stolen
from the account totaled the balance of
the $482,578 theft.
The Accusation was filed by the Division
of Criminal Justice - Office
of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor's
Medicaid Fraud Control Unit which investigates
and prosecutes civil and criminal Medicaid
fraud cases. Supervising State Investigator
Russell Rizzo, Deputy Attorney General
David B. Noble, and Auditor Cleair Budhu
were assigned to the investigation.