Maplewood Man Ran Ponzi Scheme In Jersey City: Prosecutor

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — A Maplewood man who stole almost $300,000 from customers of his two fraudulent debt relief businesses pleaded guilty Friday to one of the two alleged scams, prosecutors say.

According to the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, Germaine Theodore, 36, of Maplewood, promised customers of TGC Movement in Maplewood and Save My Future in Jersey City big reductions in their monthly bills, but he instead stole their money through Ponzi schemes.

Theodore will face a recommended sentence of seven years in state prison, prosecutors said.

According to prosecutors, Theodore pleaded guilty in Superior Court in Hudson County to the scam involving Save My Future in Jersey City. Under the plea agreement he entered with the state, he also is required to plead guilty in the TGC Movement case at a later date in Superior Court in Essex County.

Theodore must pay restitution of about $250,000 to clients of TGC Movement and about $48,000 to clients of Save My Future, prosecutors said.

“Instead of delivering the debt relief that his clients desperately needed, Theodore ruthlessly compounded their problems by stealing from them,” Attorney General Christopher Porrino said.

Prosecutors said that the Attorney General’s Office commenced a civil investigation through the Division of Consumer Affairs in September 2013 after receiving complaints from numerous customers of Theodore’s purported bill payment and debt reduction service, TGC Movement, Inc., which was located on Springfield Avenue in Maplewood.

Prosecutors said that the Division of Consumer Affairs subsequently referred the matter to the Division of Criminal Justice for a criminal investigation. The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and the Maplewood Police Department assisted the Division of Criminal Justice in the criminal investigation involving TGC Movement.

According to prosecutors:

“The investigation revealed that Theodore recruited customers for TGC Movement by claiming that he could reduce their monthly bills by 35 percent. He told clients that if they submitted their unpaid bills to the company, along with payment for 65 percent of the outstanding balance of those bills and certain fees, the company would remit payment in full to the client’s creditors. Theodore and other employees of the company variously represented to prospective clients that either funding from a government grant program or private investors paid the remaining 35 percent of the clients’ bills. In fact, Theodore quickly stopped paying bills for the clients and instead stole their payments.”

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