LAKEWOOD, N.J. - Nearly 15 people have been arrested in raids over two days in a New Jersey community in connection with an ongoing investigation that has so far exposed about $2 million in alleged public-assistance fraud in the town.
Six people were arrested Tuesday night in Lakewood, N.J., a community of about 101,000, nearly 38 miles southeast of Trenton, the state capital. The arrests follow the federal and state raids of four homes and arrests of eight people Monday on charges of stealing $1.3 million in public assistance over the last few years.
Lakewood is the fastest-growing town in New Jersey and surpassed 100,000 residents earlier this year, according to the Census Bureau. In the town, 32% of people live in poverty, Census figures show. Lakewood's rapid population growth is fueled by a flourishing Orthodox Jewish community.
Each of the six people arrested Tuesday is facing a charge of second-degree theft by deception, a state crime, according to a prepared statement from the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.
The six people are accused of defrauding the government of just more than $670,000, according to the prosecutor's office.
Arrested Tuesday were: Yitzchok and Sora Kanarek; Chaim and Liatt Ehrman; and William and Faigy Friedman.
The Kanareks wrongfully collected $339,002.56 in Medicaid, nutrition assistance, Social Security and federal housing funds, according to the prosecutor's office. The Ehrmans brought in $185,692.22 in improper Medicaid, nutrition assistance, utilities assistance and Sandy relief funds and the Friedmans bilked $149,842.28 in Medicaid, food, energy and housing funds, according to the prosecutor's office.
Yitzchok Kanarek is the former rabbi of Oros Yisroel, a school for special-needs students that closed in 2015 because of federal and state tax liens of more than $295,000, according to public records.
The six people arrested Tuesday are accused of under-reporting their incomes over a period of several years to collect public-assistance benefits they weren't entitled to receive.
Authorities "allege that the defendants misrepresented their income, declaring amounts that were low enough to receive the program's benefits, when in fact their income was too high to qualify," according to a joint statement from Ocean County (N.J.) Prosecutor Joe Coronato and New Jersey Comptroller Phillip James Degnan. The families "received income from numerous sources that they failed to disclose on required program applications."
On Monday, a prominent rabbi, Zalmen Sorotzkin, who runs the synagogue Congregation Lutzk and businesses linked to the synagogue, was arrested. The others arrested Monday included, Sorotzkin's wife, Tzipporah; his brother and sister-in-law Mordechai and Rachel Sorotzkin; Mordechai and Jocheved Breskin; and Shimon and Yocheved Nussbaum. Mordechai and Rachel Sorotzkin and the Nussbaums face federal charges in U.S. District Court.
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