Clifton Insurance Adjuster Charged with Defrauding New Jersey Turnpike Authority and Insurance Companies of More Than $200,000

Clifton Insurance Adjuster Charged with Defrauding New Jersey Turnpike Authority and Insurance Companies of More Than $200,000

U.S. Attorney's OfficeFebruary 25, 2014

District of New Jersey (973) 645-2888

NEWARK--The owner of a New Jersey-based insurance adjusting company was arrested today for allegedly defrauding the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and certain insurance companies of more than $200,000, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Robert Napolitano, 54, of Clifton, New Jersey, the owner of Dawn to Dusk LLC, an insurance adjusting company that investigated and provided adjusting services to property and casualty insurance carriers in New Jersey, was arrested by special agents of the FBI and charged by complaint filed February 19, 2014, and unsealed today with one count of mail fraud. Napolitano is scheduled to make his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph A. Dickson in Newark federal court later today.

According to the complaint:

From October 2011 to June 2013, Napolitano obtained by fraud more than $200,000 from the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) and certain insurance companies in several ways, including instructing insurance companies whose motorists caused damage to the New Jersey Turnpike to issue checks payable to Dawn to Dusk. After the checks were mailed to Dawn to Dusk, Napolitano did not forward the payments to the NJTA and instead shared the money with his previously charged conspirator, Gerardo A. Blasi, an NJTA claims manager.

Blasi, 55, of Clifton, pleaded guilty December 11, 2013, before U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty to an information charging him with using the mails to facilitate a scheme and artifice to defraud the NJTA and certain insurance companies in connection with his theft of more than $1.5 million from the authority and the insurance companies. He is scheduled to be sentenced March 19, 2014.

The fraud count with which Napolitano is charged is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI Newark Field Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford, with the investigation leading to today's charges.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney David L. Foster of the U.S. Attorney's Office Special Prosecution's Division.