By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — Several employees of a company that handles parking for film and TV crews in Manhattan were indicted for allegedly scamming the unemployment system out of $100,000, the DA said Tuesday.
The four parking company managers from Parking and Security Services Inc. created more than 100 identities to dupe the unemployment system out of the money, which included both state and federal stimulus funds, prosecutors said.
The suspects — including company owner Jose Tejada, 57, and senior managers David Laurentin, 36, Newton Cabreja, 60, and Juan De La Rosa, 44 — had undocumented workers they employed get social security numbers from friends and family members and then pretended those people were employees and charged clients for their supposed work, prosecutors said.
The suspects would then "fire" the fake employees and collect their unemployment checks, prosecutors said.
They were pocketing some of the money received but also using it to pay their employees' wages and overtime, according to prosecutors.
The scam, which allegedly lasted from July 2004 to April 2009, was designed "to sidestep their legal obligations to pay their employees overtime," Assistant District Attorney Amir Vonsover said.
An attorney for Laurentin said Tejada, the owner, was the mastermind of the alleged scam.
Laurentin was held on $100,000 bail at his arraignment on Tuesday. Cabreja and De La Rosa were held on $20,000 bail, and Tejada, who is being held in Bergen County, is expected to be presented in court next week.
They all face grand larceny and identity theft charges and face five to 15 years in prison if convicted.
