Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced that an Ocean County man pleaded guilty today to filing fraudulent applications for federal and state relief funds related to Superstorm Sandy. Since March 2014, the Attorney General’s Office has filed criminal charges against 37 people for allegedly engaging in this type of fraud.
Gregory Wagner, 63, of Toms River, pleaded guilty today to a charge of third-degree theft by deception before Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels in Ocean County. Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Wagner be sentenced to 364 days in the county jail followed by a term of probation. He must pay a total of $218,209 in restitution. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 26.
In pleading guilty, Wagner admitted that he filed fraudulent applications following Superstorm Sandy for federal- and state-administered relief funds, receiving a total of $218,209 in benefits. Wagner falsely claimed that a storm-damaged property he owns on Avalon Avenue in Bayville, was his primary residence at the time Sandy hit.
In reality, Wagner was living in Toms River and the Bayville address was a rental property. Under each of the relief programs at issue, it was a requirement that the damaged property have been the applicant’s primary home at the time of the storm.
Wagner received $31,900 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for rental assistance and personal property loss. In addition, he received $159,822 in grant payments from the Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation and Mitigation Program, which were paid directly to a contractor for design and construction work on the damaged property, and a $10,000 grant from the Homeowner Resettlement Program.
The funding for those two programs is provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, but they are administered by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.
Finally, Wagner received $16,487 from two rental assistance programs funded by the New Jersey Department of Human Services. Wagner applied for a low-interest disaster-relief loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration, but his loan application was rejected.