Man accused of "unconscionable" theft from people trying to get storm recovery funds.
A former aid worker at a state-run Hurricane Sandy recovery center in Newark was indicted Friday on charges he collected thousands in bribes and phony fees from storm victims, authorities said.
Ronald Golden, 43, of Pennsylvania. Ronald Golden, 43, is accused of accepting $ 5,770 from two Sandy victims and attempting to solicit another $ 3,000 from a third in return for helping them obtain federal aid money in the aftermath of the 2012 storm.
He faces charges of bribery, theft by deception and identify theft. Golden, of Norristown, Pennsylvania, could not be reached for comment and authorities had not been notified whether he retained an attorney.
He is one of 220 people accused of fraud by state authorities since the historic storm wrecked communities across the state, according to Veronica Allende, the director of the state Division of Criminal Justice.
Authorities say Golden used his father’s date of birth and Social Security number to circumvent a background check and get a job as a housing adviser for the recovery center in June 2013. He was fired in October 2014 for “unrelated reasons,” according to the Attorney General’s Office.
In one case, Golden told a storm victim he was a lawyer and obtained a $ 200 “retainer fee” to file a lawsuit against her insurance company, authorities claim.
Most of the money he received was in return for promises to fast-track victims’ applications for relief money provided by the federal government and administered by the state. But, authorities said, Golden “had no authority whatsoever to approve grant awards, increase grant amounts, or expedite the application process.”
“For an aid worker to exploit vulnerable disaster victims and prey upon their desire to rebuild their lives as quickly as possible, as alleged here, is absolutely unconscionable,” state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said in a statement announcing the indictment.
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