NEWARK, N.J. – An Essex County, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for embezzling more than $220,000 in campaign funds while serving as the treasurer for a Newark mayoral campaign, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.
Frederick Murphy Jr., 56, of Bloomfield, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before Chief U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares to Counts One, Two, and Five of an information charging him with wire fraud, bank fraud, and tax evasion. Judge Linares imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Between January 2014 and March 2017, Murphy served as the treasurer for election campaign accounts associated with Newark mayoral candidate Ras Baraka. Murphy admitted that during that time, he embezzled over $220,000 from those accounts by writing phony checks in the names of various consultants and vendors for services that were never performed.
Murphy cashed the checks by presenting them to a bank in Essex County with the forged signature of the check payees as well as Murphy’s own signature as a double endorsement. Murphy then reported the fraudulent checks as legitimate campaign expenditures in quarterly filings with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission. The false reports were uploaded by the Election Law Enforcement Commission onto its website for public reference.
Murphy also admitted under-reporting $102,954 in embezzled campaign funds on his personal income tax return for 2016.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Linares sentenced Murphy to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay restitution of $277,826.
U.S. Attorney Carpenito credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Gregory W. Ehrie in Newark, and IRS–Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge John R. Tafur in Newark, with the investigation.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jacques S. Pierre and Jihee G. Suh of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Special Prosecutions Division.