TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - A former New Jersey state treasury employee who pleaded guilty to stealing more than $75,000 by processing and approving fraudulent claims has been sentenced to three years in prison.
Forty-year-old Stephanie Hargrove of Willingboro was sentenced Friday on pleas to theft by unlawful taking. She served as a principal claims investigator until she was suspended in April 2017.
Authorities said she processed or approved numerous claims filed in the names of relatives, friends and acquaintances and submitted phony documents to back them. The fictitious events described in the claims included wrongful towing of vehicles and household damage blamed on foster children placed by the state.
The attorney general’s office said Hargrove will also have to pay full restitution, forfeit her job and will be barred from public employment.
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