NEW JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — Wildwood Mayor Pete Byron was sentenced to three years of probation Wednesday.
The mayor pleaded guilty to tax fraud charges stemming from 2017 and 2018 while serving as a commissioner for Wildwood. New Jersey’s District Attorney's office says he was paid about $40,000 working a second job and did not report the extra income to the IRS.
In addition to probation, he has to repay around $7,000, as well as pay $14,000 in fines, according to our partners at NBC10. But Byron’s legal troubles do not end there.
Byron, former Wildwood Mayor Ernest Troiano Jr. and Wildwood City Commissioner Steve Mikulski are accused of making false statements on forms and timesheets, according to New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin.
He says all three of them received publicly financed health benefits as a result of having falsely enrolled in the State Health Benefits Program.
According to New Jersey law, in order to participate in the State Health Benefits Program and receive publicly funded healthcare, elected officials must be full-time employees, “whose hours of work are fixed at 35 or more per week”.
Byron, Troiano and Mikulski, were never eligible for the program because they were never “full-time” employees. According to Platkin, they did not receive vacation, sick or personal days and did not maintain a regular schedule, yet they still enrolled in the program.
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Platkin says Wildwood and the benefits program paid more than $608,000 in premiums and claims for Byron for nearly a decade, and $286,500 in premiums and claims for Troiano from July 2011 to December 2019.
And as for Mikulski, Wildwood and the benefits program paid more than $103,000 in premiums and claims for him until October 2021.
The three were first indicted in March, but it was dismissed without prejudice. The case reopened July 31.
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“The court stated in dismissing this indictment that the ruling was based on a technical deficiency and that the defendants’ other arguments were unconvincing,” Platkin said.
“Today’s decision by the grand jury demonstrates the sufficiency of the evidence supporting these charges and the validity of this case, which we intend to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.”
The City of Wildwood told KYW it has no comment.