A company that handled parking and security for New York movie shoots — including “Rent” and “The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3″— was able to undercut the competition with swindled stimulus money, prosecutors said today.
Four employees of Parking and Security Services Inc. used over 100 stolen identities to cash in on $95,000 worth of unemployment benefits — $22,000 of which came from federal stimulus money, officials said.
“The federal government created a fund to stimulate the economy and to help those who have fallen on hard times as a result of the severe economic conditions,” said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. “These defendants created a mercenary scheme to take advantage of this program and defraud taxpayers.”
Prosecutors said the scam initially began as a way for the company — which was well known for getting jobs by submitting low bids — to get out of paying overtime to its employees, many of whom were undocumented workers. They’d have those workers get Social Security numbers from family members and friends, and owner Jose Tejada would submit bills for the fictitious employees to the movie makers they were working for.
They then started “firing” the non-existent employees and putting in for unemployment with the Social Security numbers — making up for the shortfall for their low prices, prosecutors said.
Among the identity theft victims were former employees of the company — and the scam unraveled when some of them applied for unemployment and were told they’d already collected their cash, prosecutors said.
Three of the employees, David Laurentin, 36, Newton Cabreja, 60, and Juan De La Rosa, 44, pleaded not guilty to grand larceny and identity theft. Their boss, PaSS owner Jose Tejada, 57, was awaiting extradition from New Jersey, where he lives.