Former Hudson County Parks seasonal worker charged with 28 counts of wire fraud in alleged 'no-show' job scheme

NEWARK, N.J. — A Rutherford, N.J., man who prosecutors say held a "no-show" seasonal job with the Hudson County, N.J., Parks Department has been charged with 28 counts of wire fraud, accused of collecting county paychecks for work he did not do and then claiming unemployment benefits for that same job, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey said Wednesday, Oct. 21.

Alfonso A. Zamarra, 58, had his initial appearance Wednesday in federal court in Newark before U.S. Magistrate Judge José R. Almonte and was released on a $100,000 bond, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office release. He is charged by criminal complaint.

"Zamarra received tens of thousands of dollars in wages and unemployment benefits to which he was not entitled," the release says.

What the complaint alleges

According to the criminal complaint, sworn by an FBI task force officer on Oct. 20:

• Zamarra was hired as a Parks Department "Seasonal Assistant" and worked three stints on the county payroll: about Dec. 16, 2019, to July 18, 2020; Oct. 23, 2021, to April 23, 2022; and March 27, 2023, to Sept. 9, 2023.
• Over about 49 pay periods, Hudson County paid him about $45,327.45 in wages by direct deposit.
• Seasonal workers could not work more than six months in any 12-month period. The complaint says Zamarra filed three unemployment claims with the New Jersey Department of Labor from 2020 through 2023, each listing his county job, and that in the 2022 and 2023 claims he said he had been laid off when his six-month terms had simply ended. It says he received about $57,021 in unemployment benefits from 2020 through 2024, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Phone location data showed Zamarra was rarely in Hudson County during the periods he was supposedly working, the complaint says. Examples put him in Rutherford, in Bergen County, during shifts he claimed to be working, and in Worcester, Mass., on June 23 and 24, 2023.
• United Airlines records show he flew to Naples, Italy, on June 29, 2023, and returned July 9, while attendance sheets claimed 70 hours of work in each of the two pay periods covering that trip.
• His signature "varies widely" across 29 attendance sheets, and the complaint says there is probable cause to believe other people sometimes signed them for him.
• About 16 of the 29 sheets had no supervisor signature. A longtime Parks supervisor whose name appears on others told investigators he or she did not sign them and never supervised Zamarra.
• Many shifts on his sheets, such as 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., are not shifts that seasonal Parks workers actually work, the complaint says.

Taken together, the complaint’s figures come to about $102,000 in county wages and state unemployment benefits.

A ‘high-ranking’ Parks official as reference

The complaint says a "high-ranking official" in the Parks Department, identified only as Individual-1 and described as a longtime personal associate of Zamarra, was listed as his reference and signed his hiring form.

When a county employee emailed in September 2021 to ask about Zamarra’s attendance and work before rehiring him, Individual-1 replied, "My referral has to be good I wouldn’t have anything less," according to the complaint. The complaint does not name Individual-1 or say whether that official faces charges.

The complaint also says Zamarra was president of Apex Apparel Services, Inc., a New Jersey corporation. In his first unemployment claim, filed in April 2020, he said he had worked for Apex until March 2020 and that the "business closed due to Covid-19." The complaint says that conflicts with his 2019 county job application, in which he said he was unemployed.

The charges and penalties

Twenty-six counts involve county paycheck deposits and two involve unemployment claims filed online in May 2022 and November 2023. Each wire fraud count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the release says.

U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer credited the FBI Newark Field Office, the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Port Authority Police Department with the investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Senior Trial Counsel Francesca Liquori and Unit Chief Jason Goldberg. Zamarra’s defense lawyer is listed as Alyssa A. Cimino.

The charges and allegations in the complaint are only allegations, and Zamarra is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Other federal cases involving the Parks Department

This is not the first federal case involving the county Parks Department. In July, Hudson TV reported that former Parks Director Russell Fallacara pleaded guilty in a bribe and kickback scheme with contractor William A. Murray. Former Parks Director Thomas DeLeo and Murray had already pleaded guilty. Hudson TV also reported this week on county work that kept going to Murray’s company.

Liquori, Goldberg, the FBI and the Labor Department’s Inspector General’s office also worked on the Fallacara case, according to the office’s July release. The Zamarra complaint does not mention that bribery case.

Hudson TV asks: Should Hudson County publish an outside audit of who approved and signed off on seasonal Parks hires and timesheets? Share your take in the comments.

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