Kim E. Bogan (Photo: NJ OAG)
The daughter of former Brick Mayor Joseph Scarpelli will suffer the same fate as her father – a prison term.
Kim E. Bogan, 52, of Brick, was sentenced to spend five years in prison in accordance with a plea deal reached when she pleaded guilty to second-degree theft by deception on Oct. 24, 2017. She must also pay $941,354.77 in restitution to Brick Township under the terms of the plea agreement and sentence imposed by Superior Court Judge Linda G. Baxter in Ocean County.
During her plea hearing, Bogan, who worked in the township’s Building Department, admitted that between January 2011 and April 2017 she assisted her brother, Dr. Glenn Scarpelli – a chiropractor who committed suicide last summer by jumping out of a New York City building – in submitting false claims to her employee health insurance program, which is self-funded by the township. The claims were for treatments purportedly rendered to individuals covered under Bogan’s policy, however they were found to be bogus.
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Because Brick is self-insured, the money came directly from taxpayers, instead of an insurance company. That led to the judge’s order to repay the township for the fraudulent expenditures.
“This defendant is going to prison for willingly participating in a health care claims scheme that cost Brick Township taxpayers – her own friends and neighbors – nearly a million dollars,” said Attorney General Christopher Porrino, in a statement. “Her sentence sends a message that stealing money from health care plans is a serious crime with serious consequences, no matter what role you play in the illegal plot.”
Porrino thanked Township Administrator Joanne Bergin and the Horizon Blue Cross-Blue Shield investigations unit for their assistance in the case.
Joseph C. Scarpelli, Bogan’s father, served an 18-month jail term after admitting to extortion and bribery charges stemming from a relationship with an unnamed real estate developer in 2007.
