State Police Seeking Public’s Assistance with Theft of M&M Displays
Holmdel NJ, First, we’ll start this off by informing you that there were no signs of melted chocolate at the scene, so we’re fairly certain they didn’t melt.
And no, they didn’t quit and walk off the job. And though it’s hard to resist grabbing a handful of these delicious treats from a candy bowl, it shouldn’t be hard to resist stealing their displays—no matter how cool they may look wherever it is the suspect or suspects had in mind. With that being said…
Paterson NJ, just days an illegal immigrant from Mexico, Cristhian Bathena Rivera, 24, was charged with first-degree murder and stands accused of killing college student Mollie Tibbetts and dumping her body in an Iowa cornfield, after he allegedly accosted her during a July 18 jog when she threatened to call police.
And the father of a missing 3-year-old who was arrested at a New Mexico compound linked to “extremist Muslims” last week was training children to commit school shootings. Prosecutors allege Jihadi Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 39, was conducting weapons training on the compound, where 11 children were found hungry and living in squalor.
Yesterday back home in New Jersey a brutal slaying in Long Branch (Monmouth County) was allegedly perpetrated by a man who is present in the United States on an expired visa.
Trenton NJ, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and the Division of Consumer Affairs today announced that 29 unlicensed movers have been issued Notices of Violation (“NOVs”) as a result of “Operation Mother’s Attic, a State-led undercover sting targeting public movers suspected of operating without licenses. Each unlicensed mover was also assessed a $2,500 civil penalty
The sting operation occurred over the course of four days in April 2018. Investigators from the Division’s Office of Consumer Protection (“OCP”) posed as individuals planning to move from an upscale neighborhood in Montville. The investigators found various unlicensed moving companies advertising online and hired them for their “move.” The movers drove to Montville, expecting to find a luxury home full of items to load, and were instead met by a team of OCP investigators, who issued them NOVs for operating without licenses.
Ramapo NJ, A new scientific poll conducted by Gravis Marketing, a non-partisan research firm, shows that 16% of voters in New Jersey who know of Murray Sabrin will vote for him. The results of the poll showed that once voters were informed of Sabrin’s positions, he quickly rose to be within striking distance of Menendez and Hugin.
Trenton NJ, This week, August 19th-25th, 2018 is designated as National Employee Freedom Week. In the past, this week has been hailed as a time for government union employees to learn more about their rights surrounding union membership. Following the favorable ruling Janus v. AFSCME, Supreme Court Case, Americans for Prosperity Foundation – New Jersey (AFPF-NJ) State Director Erica Jedynak issued the following statement: Continue reading AFP-NJ : It’s National Employee Freedom Week, Make Your Voice Heard
Jersey City NJ, A Jersey City man today admitted that he swindled two investors of $3.4 million by falsely representing that his businesses had secured lucrative contracts to sell olive oil to major retailers, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.
Montville NJ, In light of the affordability struggles many homeowners are currently facing in New Jersey, Senator Joe Pennacchio is strongly encouraging all eligible residents to apply for the Senior Freeze Property Tax Relief Program, before the October 31, 2018 deadline.
Iselin NJ , Special Agents of the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrested a Middlesex County, New Jersey, man this morning for allegedly trying to fraudulently obtain citizenship, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.
Paterson NJ, If you can’t will and argument yell “racism” . Representatives Bill Pascrell, Jr. (NJ-09), Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06), Donald Payne, Jr. (NJ-10), Albio Sires (NJ-08), Donald Norcross (NJ-01), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12) wrote a letter to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Ronald Vitiello, siding with terrorist demanding the removal of New Jersey ICE office spokesperson Emilio Karim Dabul after what they claim are disturbing news reports surfaced of Dabul’s connections to “Islamophobic groups”.
Your league is at it again. On behalf of the National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO), I am writing to you to condemn in the strongest possible terms the continuing disrespect for American police officers evinced by many of the NFL’s players.
Newark NJ, Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division today announced the formation of the Newark/Philadelphia Regional Medicare Fraud Strike Force (Regional Strike Force), a joint law enforcement effort that brings together the resources and expertise of the Health Care Fraud Unit in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division’s Fraud Section (HCF Unit), the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the District of New Jersey and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, as well as law enforcement partners at the FBI, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Newark NJ, Essex County Executive Democrat Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. today called upon Governor Phil Murphy, Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig J. Coughlin to work together and re-enact the 2 percent on annual salary increases for police officers and firefighters that are awarded through arbitration. First adopted at the behest of Governor Chris Christie in 2011 and renewed in 2014, it sunset on December 31, 2017.
Cedar Grove NJ, A Hoboken man was arrested today while allegedly trying to rob a Cedar Grove bank, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.
Frank Meletti, 53, is charged by complaint with one count of attempted bank robbery. He will appear in Newark federal court at a later date.
According to the complaint:
Trenton NJ, The blue ribbon panel created by the Legislature to develop reforms that address the state’s most challenging fiscal problems issued a series of far-reaching recommendations today that will help to avert crisis conditions, maintain fiscal stability, reduce the costs of government and allow the state to support vital needs and services.
Established under the direction of legislative leaders, the 25-member Economic and Fiscal Policy Workgroup devoted seven months of focused work that produced the recommended ways to address soaring pension and benefit costs, hold down property taxes, make school districts and government more efficient, assess the equity of the tax structure, and ameliorate the negative impact of the federal tax law, among other needs.
“New Jersey faces a series of fiscal and economic challenges that threaten to undermine our ability to address the needs of our residents and invest in the programs and services that will move the state forward,” said Senator Sweeney, (D-Gloucester/Salem/Cumberland). “It’s no secret that New Jersey continues to struggle with inefficiencies at all levels of government that result in higher costs and reduced services. We confront an unsustainable legacy pension and benefit costs that will make it all but impossible to meet our priorities, including full funding of public schools, expanding preschool and making New Jersey more affordable for families, senior citizens, and businesses. We have to be willing to take the actions needed to maintain fiscal stability and promote economic responsibility.”
Working under the bipartisan leadership of Senate Budget Chair Paul Sarlo, Senator Steve Oroho and Assembly Majority Leader Louis Greenwald, the group of economists, tax experts and fiscal experts from academia and the public and private sectors, the workgroup’s suggestions cover five categories:
Pension & Benefit Reform
Education Reform at the Administrative Level
County & Municipal Government Reform and Shared Services
State and Local Government Tax Structure
Leveraging Assets to Stabilize the Pension System
“We assembled a group of prominent and accomplished experts who devoted their hard work in developing a series of serious recommendations that are intended to address the state’s fiscal challenges,” said Senator Sarlo (D-Bergen). “The report provides a blueprint of ideas that are intended to be thought provoking. They will be the subject of further discussions, debate and consideration. We will work to determine which ones will best serve the needs of the state and which ones we will follow through on. I thank the members for their important contributions.”
The workgroup reassessed the fairness, adequacy, efficiency and affordability of the state’s current revenue structure across all levels of government and reexamined the delivery of government services to develop its findings and recommendations.
“The problems that New Jersey faces today with unfunded pension liabilities and growing healthcare costs for public employees are no surprise to anyone, with our state’s challenges clearly highlighted by both the Benefits Review Task Force that Phil Murphy chaired in 2005 and by the Byrne/Healey Commission in 2015,” said Sen. Steven Oroho (R-24). “Unfortunately, the modest reforms enacted to date have only slowed the pace of our downward spiral, and we soon face the additional burden of a massive Cadillac tax under the ACA if we do nothing to reduce health benefit costs further. It’s our responsibility to both taxpayers and public employees to address this situation honestly and with political fortitude. It’s clear that bold reforms are necessary to fix the structural deficiencies that threaten the financial future of every New Jerseyan.”
The report’s recommendations, in their entirety, represent the consensus of the assembled experts.
“These recommendations create a path to make New Jersey fiscally responsible,” said former Senator Raymond Lesniak, who served on the panel. “The fiscal crisis facing the state requires a full court press to move forward on the recommendations which will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government.”
Short Hills NJ, The former Chief Executive Officer of ConvergEx Global Markets Limited (CGM Limited) pleaded guilty this afternoon in Newark federal court for his role in a scheme to commit securities and wire fraud from 2006 through 2011.
U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito of the District of New Jersey, Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Assistant Director in Charge Nancy McNamara of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and Inspector in Charge Peter R. Rendina of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) made the announcement.
Anthony Blumberg, 53, of Short Hills, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before Chief U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares to Count One of a superseding indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 5, 2018.
According to court documents, CGM Limited was a wholly owned subsidiary of ConvergEx Group LLC (ConvergEx Group). As part of his plea today, Blumberg admitted that clients placed orders to buy or sell securities with G-Trade Services LLC and ConvergEx Limited, subsidiaries of ConvergEx Group that offered global trading services to clients, which in turn routed orders to CGM Limited. Blumberg also admitted that Traders at CGM Limited executed the orders and sometimes added a “spread,” (a mark-down on the sale of a security or a mark-up on the purchase of a security) to the prices they had obtained for non-fiduciary clients.
To hide the fact that spread had been taken, on several occasions from 2007 to 2011, Blumberg and traders acting under his direction, acting in response to requests by clients for information that could reveal the existence of spread, sent false reports (known as “time and sales reports”) to these clients. The false time and sales reports contained fabricated details regarding the individual transactions, or “fills,” executed during the course of a day to complete a client’s orders, including false information concerning the number of shares involved in a fill, the time at which the fill was executed, and the price at which shares were either purchased or sold.
Blumberg also admitted that he and his conspirators agreed to violate a client’s instructions to provide real-time transactional data through an immediate data feed with details of trades that CGM Limited executed for the client by providing “batch fills” that hid the actual information the client sought.
Blumberg is the fourth individual to plead guilty as a result of the investigation into ConvergEx Group and CGM Limited’s practices. On Dec. 18, 2013, CGM Limited pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud before Judge Linares. On the same day, ConvergEx Group entered into a deferred prosecution agreement. Collectively, the two ConvergEx entities paid $43.8 million in criminal penalties and restitution.
The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office and the Washington, D.C. and New York offices of the USPIS. The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Gary A. Winters and Assistant Chief Justin D. Weitz of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Murphy, Chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Economic Crimes Unit in Newark. The Department appreciates the substantial assistance of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
