A former employee at Newark City Hall has pleaded guilty to falsifying New Jersey birth certificates and participating in a scheme to sell them.
The 45-year-old defendant, who worked at the Newark Office of Vital Statistics, reportedly admitted to using personal information from several people to create bogus birth certificates in 2013.
According to federal prosecutors, the defendant handed off the fake birth certificates to a friend. The accomplice then allegedly sold the forged documents.
Prosecutors said that it was easy for the defendant to get access to the information needed to create the birth certificates because his job with the City of Newark was to issue official New Jersey birth certificates.
An investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement resulted in the defendant being arrested in March 2014.
After being placed under arrest, the defendant faced federal charges for procuring false identification documents. Now that he has pleaded guilty to the charges, he could be sentenced to as many as 15 years in federal person.
The defendant will return to U.S. District Court in Newark for sentencing on February 23, 2015.
For additional information about this case, check out the NJ.com article entitled “Ex-Newark City Hall Employee Admits Role in Bogus Birth Certificate Scheme.”
