6 More Lakewood Residents Arrested in $673K Welfare Fraud

Six more Lakewood resident arrested in an alleged welfare scam. (Photos: OCPO)

Two days after eight Lakewood residents, including a rabbi, were arrested over alleged abuses of the social welfare system, six more individuals – three married couples – were charged by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, officials announced Wednesday.

The six, all members of the township’s large Orthodox Jewish community, were arrested in raids just after midnight Wednesday.

Newly charged are:

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• Yitzchock, 33, and Sora, 39, Kanarek of Brisk Lane – charged with second degree theft by deception for wrongfully collecting approximately $339,002.56 in Medicaid, SNAP, HUD, and SSI benefits between January 2009 and July 2014.
• Chaim, 40, and Liatt, 39, Ehrman of Twin Oaks Drive – charged with second degree theft by deception for wrongfully collecting approximately $185,692.22 in Medicaid, SNAP, HEAP, and Sandy benefits between January 2011 and December 2015.
• William, 45, and Faigy, 40, Friedman of Leigh Drive – charged with second degree theft by deception for wrongfully collecting approximately $149,842.28 in Medicaid, SNAP, HEAP, and HUD benefits between January 2011 and December 2015.

The latest arrests come after eight residents were arrested on similar charges on Monday. Some of the original eight were reportedly millionaires, but still receiving entitlements intended to help the poor.

The nature of the criminal events investigated and basic charges allege that the defendants misrepresented their income, declaring amounts that were low enough to receive the program’s benefits, when in fact their income was too high to qualify, said Al Della Fave, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office. 

“The investigations revealed that the defendants’ received income from numerous sources that they failed to disclose on required program applications,” he said. “As a result, they received benefits that they were not entitled to under these programs for themselves or family members.”

The Ocean County Prosecutors Office is prosecuting the arrested individuals at the state level, with help from the state comptroller’s office.

The investigation by all the participating agencies is continuing and additional arrests are forthcoming, Della Fave said.

Anyone with any information on the investigation is asked to contact Sergeant Mark Malinowski of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office at 732-929-2027.