SOMETHING BLUE AT CITY WEDDINGS Cops check immigrants By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

Monday, March 17, 1997

The city clerk yesterday said law enforcement agents will continue to check for fraud among immigrants seeking to get married even as critics said the officers’ presence intimidates brides and grooms.

City Clerk Carlos Cuevas requested police support last month when city marriage offices overflowed with couples hoping to wed before immigration reforms go into effect April 1.

Yesterday, he said he will follow guidelines issued by city Corporation Counsel Paul Crotty, which allow immigrants to get married without valid visas but also support the use of cops.

In a letter Friday to First Deputy City Clerk Raymond Teatum, Crotty put to rest immigrants’ fears they needed valid visas to marry in the city. Any form of identification will do, Crotty said.

But the corporation counsel raised the specter of city employees turning immigrants away if they deem the marriage a sham.

“You are entitled to be vigilant of the use of false documents,” he said.

“The involvement of the Police Department and other law enforcement authorities in this effort is entirely appropriate and should be continued,” he wrote.

Cuevas said yesterday he had not yet seen Crotty’s letter. He said that cops from the police anti-fraud unit, along with Immigration and Naturalization officers, will continue to look over documents that people present for identification.

“Anyone that is proper and is not doing anything against the law should certainly not be intimidated by police. It is not my purpose,” he said.

But Norman Siegel, director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, called on Cuevas to remove the officers.

He said they are “a chilling and intimidating presence” to immigrants.

“How is the clerk going to know when two people come up to the desk that this is a sham marriage or not? You won’t know that until months later,” Siegel said.

Mayor Giuliani said Friday that the city clerk’s office has the right and the responsibility to make sure it is not being used to perpetrate a fraud.

Giuliani said a marriage is obviously a sham when the same person shows up with 10 different couples.

That person, more than likely, is a marriage broker taking advantage of desperate immigrants, the mayor said.

“If somebody is paying a broker for a marriage, $5,000, $10,000, that’s not something you should encourage or allow to have happen,” Giuliani said.

Cuevas said his only concern now is how to speed up the line at a time when his office’s caseload has quadrupled while he contends with an antiquated computer system and a budget that has been cut 41% over three years.

SHE LOSES CASH, STEREO TO CON MEN

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, March 26, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | B03

Two men conned a 32-year-old Paterson woman out of $300 and stole her car stereo Tuesday after persuading her to give them the money in exchange for a share in lottery winnings, police said.

The woman was shaken but not injured, police Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley said. He gave this account from a report written by Patrolman Ronald Schaarschmidt:

The scam occurred between noon and 12:45 p.m. Tuesday. One man approached the woman as she stood at a phone booth on Engle Street and asked for directions to a church. A second man then walked up and they talked.

“The first man indicated that the second male had won money from the New York State lottery, a large sum of money,” Tinsley said. “He told her that the second male would give her part of that money if she would give him some money to hold as trust.”

Tinsley said it was unclear how much money the man said he won or how much he said he would give the woman. She drove the men to the Midlantic Bank at 1 Engle St. in her car, cashed a $300 personal check, and gave the money to the supposed lottery winner.

They asked her to drive up Engle Street to a friend’s house. When she and one of the men got out of the car to go to the apartment, he ran. When she returned to her car, the other man had removed the stereo and fled, Tinsley said.

2 ARRESTED IN USED-CAR DISPUTE

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, January 15, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B03

A mechanic and his son-in-law face charges following a yearlong dispute with a Teaneck man over a used car that disappeared and a check that bounced.

Theft charges have been filed against George Nicolaou of 26 E. Madison Ave., Dumont. Nicolaou was released Saturday on $2,500 bail from the Bergen County Jail, said a spokeswoman for the county Sheriff’s Department. His son-in-law, Anthony Mamalian, who faces fraud charges in the case, also is out on bail.

Dumont Police Detective Sgt. Robert Fischer said Nicolaou, 53, who owns G. N. Auto Electric in Dumont, sold a 1971 Mercedes-Benz to Carmello Bellia in December 1990. The car, for which Bellia paid $3,000, was supposed to have a rebuilt engine and transmission, Fischer said.

Bellia told police that after he got home, “he went to his own mechanic to check the car out,” Fischer said. “He found out that the car did not have a rebuilt engine or transmission. ”

Bellia returned it the next day and asked that it be repaired or that his money be refunded, Fischer said. About a month later, Bellia was given $1,000, but a $2,000 check written by Mamalian bounced, Fischer said.

Fischer said Bellia told police he tried three times but was unable to cash the check because of insufficient funds. A civil court awarded Bellia, 51, a $5,000 judgment in June, but he has not collected, Fischer said.

Then, Fischer said, Bellia noticed that the car, which had been sitting in the lot at G. N. Auto Electric during the dispute, was missing. Bellia signed complaints against Mamalian and Nicolaou. .

Mamalian was arrested Dec. 28 on a complaint of fraud for the bounced check, and Nicolaou on Jan. 11 on complaint of theft for the missing car, Fischer said. The men will appear in Dumont Municipal Court at a date to be determined, Fischer said.

FUND-RAISING ACCUSATIONS FAMILIAR TO PAL

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, August 28, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B01

The arrest Monday of two men for allegedly passing themselves off as police officers to obtain $1,000 on behalf of the Hackensack Police Athletic League was not the first time a fund-raiser for the organization has come under scrutiny.
Five men hired by a Connecticut fund-raising firm were acquitted of charges stemming from their January 1985 arrest for solicitation of funds under false pretenses to benefit the group.
The men had been charged with using aliases instead of their real names in soliciting funds. Although police accused them then of impersonating officers in their pitch, they were never formally charged on those counts.
The Hackensack police said the Hackensack PAL is not connected to the department.
John Simonelli and Mark Carter, employees of Theatrical Marketing Services of Middletown, were arrested Monday and were being held in the Bergen County Jail on Tuesday on $7,500 bail each.
In 1990, Theatrical Marketing Services a Monmouth County firm raised about $106,000 on behalf of the Hackensack PAL, according to a financial statement filed with the Consumer Affairs Division. About $31,800 went to the PAL, with the firm and an office manager dividing the remainder.
Simonelli, of Pawtucket, R.I., was arrested after he gave John Carrino of Race Excavations Co. on Sussex Street a receipt for a $1,000 check that Carrino had given him in the presence of a detective, police said.
Carter, of Feeding Hills, Mass., was arrested shortly afterward at the 302 Ridge Road, Lyndhurst, office of the fund-raising firm. Police said they recorded a telephone conversation between Carter and Carrino in which Carter told Carrino several times that he was a member of the Hackensack Police Department.
Both were charged with wrongful impersonation of a police officer and theft by deception.
Ollie Hartsfield, a spokeswoman for the state Consumer Affairs Division, said they have no record of complaints about impersonations against Theatrical Marketing Services. The company has contracts with a number of other PALs around the state, she added.
Charles McHarris Jr., PAL executive director, said he did not find out about the arrests until Tuesday but declined to comment until he consults with the group’s lawyer. He said, however, that Simonelli and Carter were innocent of the charges against them.
No representative of Theatrical Marketing Services could be reached at the Lyndhurst or Middletown office.

Keywords: HACKENSACK; POLICE; FINANCE; FRAUD; PROBE

2 ACCUSED OF POSING AS POLICE OFFICERS; SOLICITED $1,000 FROM BUSINESSMAN

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Tuesday, August 27, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B01

Two men from a fund-raising firm hired by the Hackensack Police Athletic League were arrested Monday on charges that they passed themselves off as officers to solicit $1,000 from a city businessman, police said.
John Simonelli of Pawtucket, R.I., was arrested about noon after he gave John Carrino of Race Excavations Co. on Sussex Street a receipt for a $1,000 check that Carrino gave him in the presence of a detective, police said.
When the detective, who was posing as one of the owners of the excavation company, asked Simonelli why the department did not send a uniformed officer, he told the detective all the uniformed officers were busy, police said.
Mark Carter of Feeding Hills, Mass., was arrested shortly after Simonelli at the Lyndhurst offices of the fund-raising firm, T.M.S. Fund Raising Co., of 302 Ridge Road.
Police said they taped a telephone conversation between Carter and Carrino in which Carter told Carrino several times that he was a member of the Hackensack Police Department.
Simonelli and Carter both were charged with wrongful impersonation of a police officer and theft by deception. They were being held in the Bergen County Jail on $7,500 bail each.
Carrino’s donation would entitle his business advertisement to be placed on the inside front cover of the Hackensack PAL “Drug and Alcohol Prevention Handbook and Business Directory,” the receipt said.
No one answered the telephone or returned a message left on the answering machine at the PAL’s Hackensack office. Representatives for T.M.S. could not be reached for comment. Carrino also could not be reached Monday.
Patrolman Charles Redstone, president of the Hackensack local of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, said that although the athletic league has “Hackensack” as part of its name, it is in no way connected to the Hackensack Police Department.
The athletic league’s fund campaign often confuses residents and businesses that the PBA solicits during the fall to raise money for charity, he said. People often call the PBA to say they had already contributed money to the “Hackensack police,” he said.
Complaints of deception by telephone solicitors for police-related groups are common statewide, officials say. Investigators say the solicitors, who work on commission, often imply, if they don’t state it outright, that they are members of the local police department.
“Most people, when they hear it’s a police department, will donate money because they think it is a worthwhile cause,” said Redstone.

Keywords: FRAUD; POLICE; HACKENSACK; CHARITY

BOGUS WATER WORKERS SOUGHT IN THEFT

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, July 10, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

An elderly couple were robbed of $1,500 cash and assorted jewelry by two men who came to their home Monday and claimed to work for the “water company,” police said.
The couple whom police said were 79 and 81 years old but declined to identify further allowed the men into their house around noon, Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley said.
The men, clad in matching dark-colored uniforms, said they were checking water theft in the area, Tinsley said. One suspect took the couple upstairs into their kitchen, distracting them while the other man went into a bedroom and took the money and jewelry, Tinsley said.
Cindy Munley, a Hackensack Water Co. spokeswoman, said the men did not work for the water company.
“We ask customers to carefully check the identification of anyone claiming to be from the Hackensack Water Co.,” Munley said. “Anytime that the customer has doubt, they should feel free to call the water company before admitting anyone to the premises.”
Tinsley said anyone with a similar experience should call police. The Hackensack Water Co.’s toll-free telephone number is 1-800-422-5987.

Keywords: ENGLEWOOD; WATER; UTILITY; THEFT; FRAUD

FBI ARRESTS MAN IN FAKE DEATH SCAM

MICHAEL ALLEN | Friday, April 26, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | One Star | NEWS | Page B01

A 40-year-old North Bergen man who allegedly faked his wife’s and son’s deaths, then tried to collect on a $2 million life insurance policy, has been arrested by the FBI.
Ahmad Sadiq Mufti of 3642 Lincoln Drive was charged in U.S. Magistrate’s Court in Newark on Thursday with one count of mail fraud in a scheme to defraud Amex Life Assurance Co. of San Rafael, Calif., of the money between 1987 and 1989, FBI Special Agent William Tonkin said.
Mufti gave up without incident when FBI agents went to his home about noon Wednesday to arrest him, Tonkin said. A hearing will be scheduled to transfer Mufti to California, where he would be tried on the charge, the agent said.
If convicted, Mufti faces up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines, Tonkin said.
John Holford, a special agent at the Oakland FBI bureau, said Mufti’s wife and son were in Pakistan. He said he did not know whether Mufti collected any of the money.
Representatives for Amex could not be reached for comment.

Keywords: NORTH BERGEN; FAMILY; DEATH; FRAUD; INSURANCE

POLICE WARNING OF SCAM `CHIMNEY SWEEPS SOLICIT IN TEANECK

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, January 18, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page B05

Daniel Stewart said the deal to clean his chimney sounded good on the telephone, and the woman making the offer even gave him an additional $10 discount.
But when the deal later ballooned from $58 to about $1,000, Stewart, 36, of Birch Street, threatened to call police, and the workmen quickly left his home.
“They use high-pressure tactics,” Stewart said. “They try to scare you into making repairs. “
Teaneck Police Detective William Grace said township residents, especially the elderly, should be aware that this is just another variety of an old scam.
Grace, who sent a bulletin to police departments in the area when he heard of the scam, said police have no leads on who the con men were.
Stewart said he received a phone call about two weeks ago. A woman said American Chimney Experts was cleaning chimneys on Birch Street and offered to clean Stewart’s at a $25 discount from the $90 going rate.
“She asked me if I was a veteran and I told her no. She said too bad, because if I had been a veteran, that would have been an additional $10 discount,” Stewart said. She offered the $10 discount anyway, bringing the bill to $55 plus tax.
Three workmen arrived at his home about 45 minutes earlier than the appointed time, when he wasn’t home, he said. One man climbed to the top of the chimney, one went to the basement, and one sat down to play the piano as he negotiated with Stewart’s wife.
The man on the chimney started throwing objects down the shaft. Another said he felt something “furry” in the furnace flue. They said there was a carbon-monoxide buildup inside the chimney and that, because of state regulations, they had to turn the furnace off. They offered to do the work for $1,000.
“My wife told them they were crazy,” Stewart said.
The men disappeared when Stewart returned home about 30 minutes later and said he was going to call police.
A spokesman at the Bergen County Division of Consumer Affairs said he had never heard of American Chimney Experts.
Linda Enslow, secretary of the New Jersey Chimney Sweep Guild, said consumers should be wary of such offers. The guild can be reached at 761-1054, and it will refer people who need work done to professional sweeps in their community.

Keywords: TEANECK; FRAUD; CRIME

MAN FLEEING COPS STRUCK ON RTE. 4; ALLEGEDLY TRIED TO USE FAKE CREDIT CARD AT BANK

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, November 21, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B01

A man fleeing Paramus police after he tried to get $2,500 from a bank using a fake credit card was struck and badly injured Tuesday when he ran into speeding traffic on Route 4, police said.

The man, who police said was carrying only false identification, underwent surgery at Hackensack Medical Center on Tuesday evening. Paramus Police Chief Joseph Delaney said the man’s legs were shattered and he suffered severe internal injuries when he was struck by a Mercedes-Benz in the fast lane on the westbound side.

“He could have just as easily been killed, the way he ran into the highway,” Delaney said.

“I don’t know how he ever expected to get across the highway, especially at that time, with the traffic across Route 4,” Delaney said. “He probably didn’t see the footbridge. There’s a footbridge right above him on Forest Avenue.”

The chain of events began at about 11:20 a.m. when the man tried to obtain $2,500 from First Fidelity Bank at 10 Forest Ave. with the credit card, police said.

A teller called police, whispering that she needed assistance, Delaney said, but the call was discontinued before the desk officer could ask for more information.

Thinking a bank robbery was in progress, the officer dispatched several cruisers to the bank.

Police Officer Steve Mercer, who saw the man run out of the bank as he arrived at the scene, chased him on foot to the roadway, where the man darted into the traffic, crossing two lanes before he was hit.

Police believed the man drove to the bank and were looking for a car late Tuesday, Delaney said.

Delaney said police later learned that about $4,500 had been obtained from banks in Florida with the credit card, which police said was issued to a fictitious person in Florida.

The chief said the man carried only the Florida identification, “which was obviously fraudulently manufactured,” Delaney said, adding that police would try to establish his identity through fingerprints. “Even at the hospital, when they were asking him questions relative to who he is, where he’s from, he was being extremely evasive. “

Delaney said investigation of the accident caused a backup of the busy lunchtime traffic on Route 4 for about two hours from Forest Avenue to Hackensack Avenue.

The traffic jam caused ancillary roads to River Edge and Hackensack to clog, Delaney said.

Caption: PHOTO – LINDA CATAFFO/THE RECORD – Paramus police collecting evidence around the car that struck a man fleeing from them Tuesday.

N.Y. COUPLE ACCUSED OF DEFRAUDING COLLEGE

MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Saturday, October 20, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A04

A former assistant director of financial aid at Ramapo College of New Jersey and her husband were arrested Friday, accused of defrauding the college of $3,410 in financial aid grants.

Gloria and John Prentzel of Greenwood Lake, N.Y., were released on their own recognizance after arraignment before Judge Marguerite T. Simon in Superior Court in Hackensack. Prentzel was charged with theft by deception; his wife was charged with assisting a theft.

Detective Sgt. Fred Landsky of the state police Official Corruption Unit said he investigated the couple after a routine audit of the financial aid office by the Mahwah college showed that Mrs. Prentzel, 31, had approved a fraudulent financial aid application in the summer of 1989 by John Prentzel, 27, who was her fiance at the time.

Landsky said she approved the application despite knowing that her fiance listed a New Jersey address to lower his tuition fees, lied when he said he was a full-time student, and had annual income that made him ineligible for financial aid.

Landsky said Mrs. Prentzel resigned from her position at the college in September.