Supervisor and Employee of City of Trenton Bureau of Environmental Health Charged with Receiving Illegal Overtime Payments

TRENTON, N.J. - A Burlington County, New Jersey, man and a Mercer County, New Jersey, man made their initial court appearances today on charges of participating in a conspiracy to obtain overtime payments from the city of Trenton for work they did not perform, by fraudulently inflating the overtime hours they claimed to have worked conducting residential lead inspections and meal deliveries to needy Trenton residents, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.

Martin Moore, 59, of Florence, New Jersey, and Andre Trott, 51, of Ewing, New Jersey, are each charged by complaint with conspiracy to embezzle, steal, and obtain by fraud more than $5,000 in funds belonging to and under the care, custody and control of the city of Trenton. Moore is also charged with making false statements to investigators. They appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Tonianne J. Bongiovanni in Trenton federal court and were each released on $50,000 unsecured bond.

According to the documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Trenton's Department of Health and Human Services (Trenton HHS) is required to provide services to identify lead sources in residential homes in Trenton where children had tested positive for elevated levels of lead in their blood. Beginning in 2018, a New Jersey state grant funded inspections of Trenton properties identified with childhood residents with elevated blood lead levels. Trenton's Bureau of Environmental Health (BEH), a subdivision of Trenton HHS, was responsible for performing these residential lead inspections.

Trenton received federal funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to provide public services, including a meal program to prepare and deliver meals throughout Trenton to the city's most vulnerable and needy populations. Members of BEH delivered meals under the CDBG from 2020 to 2021.

Moore, a principal registered environmental health specialist for BEH and the entity's supervisor, and Trott, a senior registered environmental health specialist for BEH, conducted residential lead inspections with other members of BEH from February 2018 through May 2022, and delivered meals with other members of BEH from April 2020 through May 2021. Moore directed members of BEH, including conspirators Trott, Michael Ingram, William Kreiss, and Meraj Fatima, to obtain payments from the city of Trenton for work they did not perform, by fraudulently inflating the overtime hours they claimed to have worked relating to residential lead inspections. Moore also directed Trott, Ingram and Kreiss to inflate their overtime hours submitted for meal deliveries. Moore, himself, also falsely reported overtime exceeding the time it actually took him to complete activities related to lead inspections and meal deliveries. As a result of these fraudulent overtime reports, Moore, Trott, and other members of BEH were paid for overtime work that they did not perform.

In May 2022, when the FBI asked Moore about his role in connection with lead inspections, Moore falsely stated that there was no situation where he had purposedly misrepresented his hours and no situation where he had claimed overtime hours for periods of time that he was outside of New Jersey, even though Moore knew at the time he made these statements that they were knowingly and intentionally false.

Moore faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and maximum fine of $500,000. Trott faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Ingram and Kreiss pleaded guilty on Nov. 28, 2023, and Fatima pleaded guilty on Feb. 26, 2024, to separate informations charging each with one count of conspiracy to embezzle, steal, and obtain by fraud more than $5,000 in funds belonging to and under the care, custody and control of the City of Trenton. They are awaiting sentencing.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James E. Dennehy in Newark; the Environmental Protection Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Renee Stewart; and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General, Northeast Region, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Vicky Vazquez, with the investigation leading to the charges.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric A. Boden, Attorney-in-Charge of the Trenton Branch Office.

The charges and allegations contained in the complaint are merely allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.