| TRENTON
– Attorney General Zulima V. Farber
and Division of Criminal Justice Director
Gregory A. Paw announced that the New Africa
Day Care Center, its executive director,
its manager and a board member have been
indicted on theft and other charges for
allegedly diverting state funding from the
day care center for personal use.
According
to Director Paw, a nine-count indictment
was returned today by a state grand jury
against New Africa Day Care Center Inc.,
formerly located at 372 South Orange Ave.,
Newark; its executive director, Muslimah
Suluki, 58, of College Park, Ga.; her son,
Robert Parish, 42, of Neptune, who was manager
of New Africa; and her ex-husband, Mahdi
Suluki, 64, of East Orange, who was a consultant
and board member of New Africa.
The
state grand jury indictment alleges that
between January 2001 and March 2004, when
New Africa closed, the defendants took more
than $200,000 in state funds that were dedicated
for day care and preschool programs and
used them for personal expenditures, including
, among other things, purchases of two Jaguars
for Muslimah and Mahdi Suluki, and vacations
in Chicago and Hyannis Port, Mass.
“We
allege that these defendants stole state
funds that were intended to help young children
in disadvantaged school districts,”
said Attorney General Farber. “They
violated the law and they violated the trust
that the state and their community placed
in them.”
“These
defendants allegedly were living in high
style with funds that should have been used
for preschool and day care programs,”
said Director Paw. “We will continue
to investigate and prosecute this type of
abuse to the full extent of the law.”
In
addition to federal funds, New Africa received
Abbott pre-school funding from the New Jersey
Department of Education and day care funding
from the state Department of Human Services.
New Africa, which typically had an enrollment
of about 45 children, received more than
$1.8 million in public funding during the
years it operated.
Attorney
General Farber noted that the Department
of Education reported the suspected criminal
activity to the Division of Criminal Justice
when DOE officials discovered questionable
expenditures. The DOE provided administrative
resources and investigative assistance to
the Division of Criminal Justice throughout
the investigation.
“I
am gratified that Attorney General Farber
and Director Paw share DOE’s long-held
concerns about the need to ensure that Abbott
preschool vendors who rip off the system
are brought to justice,” said acting
Commissioner of Education Lucille E. Davy.
“For
the past four years, DOE has been working
to improve the quality of our Abbott preschool
program, provide better state and district
oversight and increase the level of fiscal
accountability to which we hold the vendors.
With this indictment today, the Division
of Criminal Justice and DOE are sending
a very clear message that people who line
their pockets with state preschool money
will be identified and punished,”
she said.
According
to Director Paw, an investigation by the
Division of Criminal Justice - Special Prosecutions
Bureau revealed that Muslimah Suluki and
Parrish allegedly diverted more than $75,000
in funding from the non-profit New Africa
Day Care Center to a for-profit day care
center they ran in Neptune called Aziz Learning
Center, from which they withdrew profits.
The
indictment, handed up to Superior Court
Judge Maria Marinari Sypek in Mercer County,
charges the day care center and the three
individual defendants with theft by failure
to make a required disposition of property,
a second-degree crime, and charges each
individual defendant with misconduct by
a corporate official, a second-degree crime.
In addition, it charges each individual
defendant with one or more counts of failure
to file a state income tax return, a third-degree
crime: Muslimah Suluki 2001, 2002 and 2003;
Parrish in 2002 and 2003; and Mahdi Suluki
in 2003. Finally, it charges Mahdi Suluki
with theft by deception, a third-degree
crime, for allegedly soliciting a donation
of $4,785 from a Newark business for New
Africa after the day care center went out
of business and depositing it into a bank
account he controlled.
Crimes
of the second degree carry sentences of
up to 10 years in state prison and a criminal
fine of up to $150,000, while crimes of
the third degree carry sentences of up to
5 years in state prison and a criminal fine
of up to $15,000. The indictment is merely
an accusation and the defendants are presumed
innocent until proven guilty.
Deputy
Attorney General Susan Kase presented this
matter to the state grand jury. The investigation
was conducted by State Investigators Wayne
Cummings and Lee Bailey for the Division
of Criminal Justice - Special Prosecutions
Bureau and Tax Investigator Bruce Stuck
of the New Jersey Division of Taxation -
Office of Criminal Investigation.
>>
New Africa
Day Care Center Indictment (284k pdf)
plug-in
|
