Two Mercer County Men Indicted for Identity Theft, Insurance Fraud

Two Mercer County men have been indicted on charges they stole a Florida man’s identity in order to open a roofing business which they used as a shell company to hide $1.5 million in revenue, Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman and the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor (OIFP) announced on Monday.

The shell company, Marrero Construction, Inc., also did legitimate roofing work, and allegedly underpaid its taxes by approximately a quarter-million dollars and underpaid its workers’ compensation premiums by approximately $350,000 between 2010 and 2011.

Douglas “Mauricio” Saenz, 34, of Trenton and Gilberth “Tacho” Navarro Umana, 33, of Hamilton, were indicted by the state grand jury on Friday and were arrested at their homes on Monday.

Both men were charged with second-degree conspiracy, second-degree impersonation/identity theft, fourth-degree identity theft, two counts of second-degree theft by failure to make required disposition, second-degree misconduct by a corporate official, two counts of third-degree insurance fraud, two counts of third-degree failure to file an income tax return, two counts of failure to pay taxes, one count of fourth-degree workers compensation fraud and two counts of fourth-degree falsifying records.

Saenz was also charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution.

Saenz and Umana are currently being held in Mercer County jail awaiting a bail hearing.

“The men arrested today allegedly skirted their legal responsibilities of paying taxes and rightfully insuring their employees by using obfuscation and misrepresentation to pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Hoffman said. “The shocking truth is that a stolen identity can be used by nefarious actors to turn simple personal information into a criminal enterprise.”

“The defendants allegedly defrauded their insurance carriers by claiming their company did carpentry work, not roofing work, thus receiving a lower rate for workers’ compensation insurance that reflected safer work,” Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Ronald Chillemi said. “Though the insurance carriers pay the immediate price for this alleged fraud, the cost is eventually passed on to the public through increased insurance premiums.”

The defendants allegedly employed an unindicted co-conspirator to assume the stolen identity of “E.M.” and front Marrero Construction.

OIFP believes the front man posing as E.M. grossly underreported Marrero Construction’s payroll, at the behest of the defendants.

The imposter also allegedly represented in insurance filings that Marrero Construction’s primary business was carpentry, rather than roofing.

Both declarations allegedly reduced the company’s workers’ compensation liability by more than 97 percent, from approximately $350,000 to $9,413.

The state is further alleging that Marrero Construction did not file income tax returns for the years of 2010 and 2011 and thus the company and its actual owners, Saenz and Umana, owe the state $250,385 in back taxes, fees and interest.

OIFP located the actual E.M. in Florida and believes the man did not have knowledge of the alleged crimes that were perpetrated in his name.

The attached image of Gilberth Umana was provided by the Attorney General’s Office.

The attached image of Douglas Saenz was provided by the Attorney General’s Office.