Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced that a Newark man pleaded guilty today to theft and money laundering for orchestrating a scheme to steal nearly $1.5 million in unemployment benefits from the State of New Jersey.
Terry Dilligard II, 38, of Newark, pleaded guilty today to second-degree charges of theft by deception and money laundering before Superior Court Judge Timothy P. Lydon in Mercer County.
Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Dilligard be sentenced to 18 years in state prison, specifically nine years for each charge, with the sentences to run consecutively.
Dilligard also pleaded guilty to a second-degree charge of theft by deception for stealing $165,600 from Harrah’s Resort and Casino in Atlantic City by making copies of checks issued to him by the casino and fraudulently collecting payment on the copies as well as the original checks.
He faces a concurrent seven-year prison sentence on that charge. Judge Lydon scheduled sentencing for Dilligard for June 5.
Deputy Attorneys General Philip Leahy and Anthony Torntore prosecuted Dilligard. Torntore took the guilty plea today for the Division of Criminal Justice Specialized Crimes Bureau. Dilligard was charged in “Operation Labor Day,” an investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice and the New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development.
In pleading guilty, Dilligard admitted to conspiring with others, including his ex-girlfriend and his father, to defraud the State of New Jersey out of a total of $1,489,411 in unemployment benefits.
His ex-girlfriend, Monique Valentine, 36, of Roselle, N.J., was sentenced on Sept. 26, 2014 to five years in prison for her role in the scheme. Charges are pending against Terry Dilligard Sr., 60, of DeLand, Fla.
Dilligard, Valentine and Dilligard Sr. were named in a March 1, 2012 indictment charging that between August 2006 and November 2010, they conspired to file false unemployment insurance claims which resulted in the theft of $1,489,411 in unemployment benefits from the State of New Jersey. Claims were filed in the names of numerous co-conspirators and individuals whose identities were stolen, including nine voters in Florida whose identities were allegedly stolen by Dilligard’s father.
A separate indictment returned on the same day charged Janice Allen, 59, of Newark, Dilligard’s mother, and Janice Dilligard, 38, of Newark, Dilligard’s twin sister, with stealing $585,304 by filing false unemployment claims in the names of numerous claimants, including relatives and people who were deceased. Both of those women were convicted at trial on Dec. 20, 2013 and each was sentenced to 15 years in state prison, including five years of parole ineligibility.
Twenty-six others defendants were indicted in the plot and 25 have either pleaded guilty or been admitted into the Pre-Trial Intervention program. The one remaining defendant, Tony Hardiman, is a fugitive.
The investigation began in 2010 when a debit card company affiliated with a bank used by the defendants alerted the New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development about suspicious activity related to debit accounts, including account holders who were deceased and unemployment benefits for multiple claimants being deposited into the same account. The labor department’s fraud unit, the Bureau of Benefit Payment Control, identified numerous false claims linked to the accounts and alerted the Division of Criminal Justice. The Division of Criminal Justice and Department of Labor & Workforce Development then commenced their joint investigation, “Operation Labor Day.”