Edison Man Admits Committing $81K In Sandy Fraud Via Motel

Toms River, NJ — An Edison man has pleaded guilty to stealing federal relief funds by lying about housing Superstorm Sandy victims at his Toms River motel, the state's attorney general announced Monday.

Sandipkumar Patel, 43, of Edison, pleaded guilty to a second-degree charge of theft by deception before Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels in Ocean County, state Attorney General Christopher Porrino said. Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Patel be sentenced to three years in state prison, Porrino said. Daniels scheduled sentencing for Patel for Nov. 4.

In pleading guilty, Patel admitted that he fraudulently obtained $81,567 from the FEMA Transitional Shelter Assistance (TSA) program. Under the program, the Federal Emergency Management Administration directly paid participating hotels and motels for rooms temporarily occupied by residents displaced by Sandy. Patel owns the Americana Motel on Route 166 in Toms River with his wife. FEMA paid the motel $133.28 per day for each room occupied by storm victims.

The joint federal and state investigation revealed that Patel fraudulently billed FEMA a total of $81,567 in the names of 11 individuals under the TSA program. Eight of the individuals never stayed at the motel at all, while the other three stayed for shorter periods than were billed, or, in one case, shared a room that Patel already had billed to FEMA in the name of the other occupant, Porrino's office said.

In some cases, Patel falsely billed for stays of multiple weeks or even months. He billed FEMA more than $50,000 in the names of several of his personal relatives who live in New Jersey but were not displaced by the storm.

“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,” Porrino said. "We’ll continue our aggressive efforts to prosecute greedy individuals like Patel who committed fraud and diverted relief funds from deserving recipients.”

Deputy Attorney General William N. Conlow prosecuted Patel and took the guilty plea for the Division of Criminal Justice Financial & Computer Crimes Bureau. Patel was charged in an investigation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security-Office of Inspector General and the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice, according to the news release.

Photo of the Americana Motel via Google Maps; Sandipkumar Patel photo provided by the Attorney General's office