Quote:

www.cheeques.com

They scammed the landlord too.
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Indictment: Pair of scammed $465K from Morris company

Couple accused of having Parsippany-based ADP process fraudulent checks

By Peggy Wright
Daily Record

A couple was indicted Wednesday on charges of stealing nearly $465,000 from Automatic Data Processing Inc. in Parsippany over a two-month period in 2005.

A Morris County grand jury returned an indictment that charges Arcadio Santiago, 25, of Jersey City, and his girlfriend, Nicole M. Lere, 26, of Parlin, with two counts of theft by deception from ADP Inc. between March 1 and April 30, 2005; two counts each of issuing bad checks and uttering a forged instrument, which means passing bad check; and one count of conspiracy to commit theft by deception.

The indictment follows the arrest of the pair in July 2006, when they first were accused of defrauding ADP out of $464,035 in payroll and accounts payable bank checks.

According to court documents, the couple created a false business entity they called NML Construction of Jersey City, using the same initials as in Lere's name. NML allegedly was used as a front to hire ADP Inc. in March 2005 to create a payroll and accounts payable service account for the construction firm. Santiago was identified in an arrest affidavit as the president of NML, while Lere was identified as an employee.

Between March and April 2005, ADP processed 44 checks for NML to cover payroll and other expenses. These included a check to a Mercedes dealership for $69,639; three payroll checks to Lere totaling $38,617; an $83,204 check to a Land Rover dealership in Paramus; and a check to American Express for $12,217, according to the affidavit filed by Morris County Prosecutor's Office Detective Stephen Ortiz.

ADP, headquartered in Roseland and with offices in Parsippany and Florham Park, is a global business services firm that operates in more than 26 countries.

The wages that Lere drew in the brief period equated to a net annual salary of $192,106 for a young woman who last worked as a bartender at a go-go bar in Linden, Ortiz said in his affidavit. The detective said he also verified that NML Construction did not even register as a limited liability company in the state until two weeks after it contracted with ADP.

After processing two paycheck periods, ADP began alerting NML that it had insufficient funds in its account to cover any of the payroll and accounts payable checks it had issued. Santiago and Lere then tried to reimburse ADP with two counterfeit checks totaling $462,372 that purported to be drawn on an account with Paragon Federal Credit Union of Englewood Cliffs, police said. The indictment said one fake check was issued to ADP for $151,152 and a second for $311,220.

Shortly after being alerted in April 2005 about the alleged fraud, detectives visited the Dudley Street apartment in Jersey City, where NML was supposedly based. They found an apartment without furniture and a man sanding the floor, police said. Detectives learned that Lere and Santiago leased the apartment on March 8, 2005, but were ordered to get out after a month because the credit union check that Lere used as her deposit was counterfeit, the arrest affidavit said.

Detectives found that the couple leased another Jersey City apartment on Warren Street after their ouster from the Dudley Street unit, police said.

Armed with a search warrant, police found materials and software for making checks, along with blank personal checks and credit cards in the names of individuals who did not live in the apartment, collection agency notices and stacks of blank business checks in the names of NML Construction, A&S Consultants, U-Design Construction LLC, and MGAS Cabinetry, according to court records.


http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs. ... 1/COMMUNITIES38/809110376

So what do we learn from this? That ADP is dumb. That this couple is just as dumb for hanging around for 3 years and not heading for the border with the new cars and the cash. That you can learn a lot working as a go go bar bartender in Linden. Ba Da Bing!

Jersey City couple indicted! Say 2 scammed ADP out of $464G

Indicted! Say 2 scammed ADP out of $464G

Thursday, September 11, 2008
By MARGARET McHUGH
NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE

A Jersey City couple were indicted yesterday, accused of scamming an international business administration company out of $464,000.

Nicole Lere, 27, and Arcadio Santiago, 25, were charged with two counts each of theft by deception, issuing a bad check and uttering a forged instrument and one count of conspiracy to commit theft by deception.

Lere and Santiago allegedly created a fake construction company, NML Construction, and contracted with Roseland-based Automatic Data Processing Inc. to handle payroll and accounts payable services, according to an arrest affidavit.

Over two weeks in the spring of 2005, ADP issued 44 checks totaling $464,035 on behalf of the construction company, according to arrest affidavits.

ADP paid $83,200 for a Land Rover and $70,000 for a car purchased at a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Newton. It also paid Lere, who until then had been a bartender at a Linden go-go bar, $38,600 for two weeks of work, the arrest affidavit said.

Authorities say NML Construction reimbursed ADP using counterfeit checks in the name of a Bergen County federal credit union.

The Morris County Prosecutor's Office, the U.S. Secret Service and the Parsippany Police Department launched an investigation in April 2005, after an ADP employee in the company's Parsippany office contacted authorities.

When police searched Lere's apartment in September 2005, they found check stock paper imprinted with Paragon Federal Credit Union of Englewood Cliffs. The paper had an account number that matched the checks paid to ADP, the arrest affidavit said. They found check-making computer software and several stacks of blank business checks in the name of NML Construction and three other businesses, according to the arrest affidavit.

They also found numerous credit cards and blank checks in the name of people not living at that apartment.

Lere and Santiago face up to 20 years in state prison if convicted.