the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, a Governor Murphy-appointed member of the NJ Transit’s board of directors has been arrested in connection with a nearly $900,000 insurance fraud scheme, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office said.
According to the governor’s office, David Rasmussen resigned from the board Thursday evening. Rasmussen was appointed by the Governor and approved by the state Senate to a newly created position on the agency’s board of directors in January 2020 as one of two non-voting members representing unions, which recommend candidates for the posts.
Rasmussen was charged Wednesday with conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and theft by deception. In addition to the charges against Rasmussen, his wife, Suzanne, 52, and her nephew Raymond Giovannone, 33, both of Woodbridge, were each arrested and charged with the same two crimes, the Prosecutor’s Office said.
The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office alleged that the scheme used the information from 10 NJ Transit employees to get doctors to write unnecessary prescriptions for medications like pain and scar creams after telemedicine visits in an attempt to defraud Blue Cross/Blue Shield which provides health insurance coverage to state employees. The Prosecutor’s Office said the suspects received kickbacks for the prescriptions.
