September 26, 2016
A New Jersey motel owner pleaded guilty on Monday to stealing thousands of dollars in Superstorm Sandy relief funds under the false pretense that he housed displaced residents for extended stays at his Americana Motel in Toms River, Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino announced.
Sandipkumar Patel, 43, of Edison, pleaded guilty to second-degree theft by deception after he fraudulently obtained $81,567 from the FEMA Transitional Shelter Assistance (TSA) program. Under TSA, FEMA paid out direct funds to participating hotels and motels that offered temporary residency to victims of the devastating 2012 hurricane.
“This FEMA program enabled motel owners to shelter Sandy victims while still collecting a reasonable room rate, but Patel was more interested in stealing relief funds than helping victims,” said Attorney General Porrino. “We’ll continue our aggressive efforts to prosecute greedy individuals like Patel who committed fraud and diverted relief funds from deserving recipients.”
Sandipkumar Patel.
Eight of those individuals never stayed at Americana Motel, investigators determined, and another three stayed for periods briefer than the amount Patel billed FEMA. In one case, Patel charged FEMA for a room in the name of an individual was sharing another room.
Many of the individuals Patel named in the TSA program were personal relatives of his who lived in New Jersey but were not displaced by the storm. FEMA was falsely billed for stays that Patel claimed lasted several weeks or months.
Patel is one of more than 70 people who have been charged in defrauding Sandy relief programs.
"Our investigative efforts on this front are continuing in full force,” said Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice. “Our prosecutions should deter this conduct in future disasters, so that funding is preserved for those who need it most and relief administrators can focus on recovery, not policing fraud.”
Under Patel's plea agreement, the state will recommend that he be sentenced to three years in state prison. A sentencing has been scheduled for Nov. 4.
