Leader Of False Unemployment Claims Scheme Gets Prison Term
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A northern New Jersey man who led a scheme to steal more than $180,000 by filing false unemployment claims is now headed to prison.
State authorities say 54-year-old Stephen Pirrone, of Paramus, received a seven-year sentence Friday. He also must pay $54,623 in restitution to the state Department of Labor.
Pirrone had pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy and theft by deception charges.
Acting Attorney General John Hoffman says the scheme ran from November 2006 through March 2013, and he recruited three other men to take part.
Prosecutors say the men's claims were flagged because they used the same defunct employers and other common elements. The defunct businesses were a trucking company Pirrone used to operate and a bankrupt trucking company from which he once rented office and terminal space.
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