Lead Property Manager Admits Conspiracy to Committ Wire Fraud in $470,000 Kickback Scheme Involving Jersey City Condo Complex

CAMDEN, N.J. – A New Jersey man today admitted conspiring with two others in a kickback scheme to defraud the owner of a condominium complex in Jersey City of $470,000, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.

Ranaldo Bennett, 56, of Jersey City, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Karen M. Williams in Camden federal court to an information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Bennett’s conspirators, Nathaniel Obedos and Jonathan Smith, pleaded guilty before Judge Williams on July 6, 2023, and Feb. 8, 2024, respectively, and are awaiting sentencing.

According to the publicly filed documents and statements made in Court:

From November 2018 through October 2020, Bennett conspired with Smith and Obedos to engage in a kickback scheme to defraud the owner of the condominium complex. Bennett was the complex’s lead property manager and Smith was its superintendent. Bennett and Smith steered repair and maintenance work to Obedos and his company in exchange for kickbacks from Obedos. Bennett and Smith falsified invoices that grossly inflated the value of Obedos’s work. Relying on those fake invoices, the complex paid Obedos the inflated prices, and Obedos then used the excess money to pay Bennett and Smith kickbacks. The complex paid Obedos and his company over $1 million for work that was actually valued at $500,000. Obedos used the overpayments to pay $440,000 in kickbacks to Bennett and approximately $30,000 in kickbacks to Smith.

The charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years. The charge also carries a maximum fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense. Bennett’s sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 7, 2024.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James E. Dennehy in Newark, with the investigation leading to the  guilty plea.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Blake Coppotelli of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Economic Crimes Unit.