Ex-state worker from Bordentown given five years for theft

A Bordentown woman who once worked as a bookkeeper for a New Jersey state agency is sentenced to five years in prison for skimming $296,216 over a span of six years, using fabricated invoices.

Suzanne Eyman, 44, was sentenced in a Trenton courtroom for her September guilty plea to a second-degree charge of theft by deception, according to the office of state Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino.

She was also ordered to pay full restitution to the Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD), and is barred from public employment in New Jersey..

Investigators said that Eyman submitted payment vouchers intended to reimburse vendors who care for disabled individuals, collected payments by checks and through direct depsits.

Among Eyman's functions was to collect invoices and related documents from vendors and submit information into a digital database for electronic submission to the Treasury Department.

According to investigators, Eyman fabricated a vendor under the heading "Suzanne Muller," applying her husband's Social Security number, borrowing information from legitimate invoices, and, beginning in 2012, categorizing the nonexistent vendor as a respite provider. The Treasury issued more than 100 checks, authorities said.

Corruption, financial crime and other illegal activities can be reported confidentially through a portal on the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice web page, or toll-free at 866-TIPS-4CJ.