Bergen Man Gets 5 Yrs. For Scamming Companies Out Of $3M

A Bergen County man was sentenced Wednesday to 61 months in federal prison for scamming companies out of $3 million and failing to pay more than $880,000 in taxes, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.

Philip Charles de Gruchy, 64, used shell companies and phony invoices to scam both his and his wife's employers of the money, Carpenito said. He pleaded guilty to six counts of an indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and subscribing to false individual and corporate tax returns, Carpenito announced.

U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton imposed the sentence on de Gruchy Wednesday in Newark federal court.

De Gruchy's then-wife, Barbara Brown worked for a Wayne-based toy retailer who had a business relationship with CEM Inc., a company she and de Gruchy secretly controlled. The company mailed checks payable to CEM, but de Gruchy deposited the checks into a CEM account at bank branches in Park Ridge, Carpenito said.

De Gruchy then wrote checks payable either to himself, Brown, or two other companies they were affiliated with and used the money to renovate their home and pay their mortgage and credit card bills.

De Gruchy, as director of global relations for a South Plainfield company, hired Brown to assist him on a project, but did not reveal the fact that he was related to Brown, Carpenito said.

From November 2010 until November 2011, Brown submitted invoices in her own name or the name of her company, BI Insights, totaling more than $300,000 for purported work related to the data migration project, authorities said. De Gruchy approved all of the invoices submitted by Brown and BI Insights.

De Gruchy admitted that he filed false federal tax returns, for 2009 and 2010 on which he knowingly overstated expenses and understated gross receipts, including receipts from the fraudulent conduct, Carpenito said.

Brown was charged on the same indictment as de Gruchy, died in May 2017.

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com

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