Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced that a suspended engineer for the New Jersey Department of Transportation (DOT) pleaded guilty today to falsifying time sheets to steal nearly $20,000 in overtime pay.
Harish Bhanderi, 53, of Newtown, Pa., who previously was suspended without pay from his position as manager of the DOT Roadway Maintenance, Engineering and Operations Section, pleaded guilty to an accusation charging him with third-degree theft by deception before Superior Court Judge Timothy P. Lydon in Mercer County.
Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that he be sentenced to 364 days in the county jail as a condition of a term of probation. He must pay restitution of $19,905. He must forfeit his employment with the DOT and will be permanently barred from public employment. Bhanderi is scheduled to be sentenced on March 20.
Deputy Attorney General Mallory Shanahan prosecuted Bhanderi for the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau. The case was referred to the Division of Criminal Justice by the DOT Office of the Inspector General. Bhanderi and a second DOT employee, Alkesh Desai, were charged by complaint on Oct. 7, 2014 with third-degree theft by deception. Desai is suspended from his DOT job as supervisor of the Drainage Bureau. The charge against Desai is pending.
In pleading guilty, Bhanderi admitted that he and Desai submitted timesheets indicating that they were entitled to emergency overtime pay for responding after hours to emergency roadway incidents. In reality, they were not responding to emergencies after hours, but were simply driving their state vehicles past sites where emergencies had occurred days or even weeks earlier. The state’s investigation revealed that Bhanderi submitted more than 100 false overtime claims totaling $19,905 between June 2013 and June 2014. Desai allegedly submitted more than 70 overtime claims totaling more than $15,000. The charge against Desai is merely an accusation and he is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Acting Attorney General Hoffman and Director Honig noted that the Division of Criminal Justice has established a toll-free tip line 1-866-TIPS-4CJ for the public to report corruption, financial crime and other illegal activities confidentially.