Woman Pleads Guilty to Stealing Millions from Employer

A Bedminster woman, a former employee of a Morris County insurance brokerage company, pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing millions from her employer, the attorney general's office said.

Kelly Roetto, 45, pleaded guilty to second-degree theft by unlawful taking, second-degree issuing bad checks and second-degree misconduct by a corporate official when she appeared Thursday in Morris County Court.

Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend she be sentenced to nine years in state prison, and she will be ordered to pay restitution and agree to never again obtain an insurance license in this state, the attorney general's office said.

Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 19.

“This defendant used her position of trust within this insurance brokerage firm to divert millions of dollars for her personal enrichment,” Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa said in the release. “My office will continue to work with the insurance industry to root out corrupt insurance brokers.”

At the time of the crime, the release said, Roetto was the controller of the John A. Rocco Co., Inc. in Florham Park, a now-defunct insurance brokerage.

The company, the release said, worked to obtain insurance policies on behalf of small and medium-sized trucking, hauling, waste management, moving and recycling businesses in New Jersey and New York. It arranged for businesses to finance the costs of insurance policies, and Roetto was responsible for both arranging this financing and ensuring that the borrowed funds were forwarded from the company's bank accounts to insurance carriers.

According to the release, in pleading guilty, Roetto admitted that between Jan. 1, 2008 and May 28, 2010, she stole between $3.8 million and $5 million of financed proceeds through her job.

To do this, the release said, Roetto used several schemes to steal the money. In one such scheme, the release said, she failed to send financed proceeds to the company she worked for when it was given under the assumption that it would be used to purchase insurance policies.

In those instances, the release said, Roetto admitted that she used the money for something other than its intended purpose.

In addition, the release said, there were times when Roetto caused unauthorized agreements to be submitted to finance companies, and used the proceeds from those for unlawful purposes.

Roetto also admitted, the release said, that she issued more than 200 bad checks—drawn on many of the company's bank accounts at at least 10 banks—all totaling more than $2 million.