Camden County man accused of stealing $48K in dead father's annuities
A Camden County man is accused of stealing $48,000 by cashing his father’s annuity checks for more than two years after the man’s death.
A Camden County man is accused of stealing $48,000 by cashing his father's annuity checks for more than two years after the man's death.
Joseph H. Kayati Jr., 51, of Waterford Township, was indicted by a state grand jury Thursday on 33 counts, including forgery, identity theft and failure to pay taxes, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General announced in a news release.
Kayati Jr. allegedly failed to inform Monarch Life Insurance that his father died in 2011. Officials said that, between November 2011 and December 2013, Kayati Jr. removed 26 annuity checks from his father's post office box and cashed them, forging his deceased dad's signature on each one.
In all, Kayati Jr. swindled the life insurance company out of $48,382, according to authorities.
"Every month, for more than two years, this defendant allegedly made a conscious decision to perpetuate a fraud in order to greedily accept payments that did not belong to him," Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman said in a statement.
Kayati Jr. also allegedly failed to report the annuity proceeds as taxable income to the state Department of the Treasury in his 2012 taxes. Kayati Jr. didn't file any taxes at all for 2013, officials said. As a result, he allegedly failed to pay the state $669 in taxes, penalties and interest.
If convicted, Kayati Jr. faces a maximum possible penalty of five years in state prison and a $15,000 fine for each offense.