Manalapan Man Charged With $40M Fraud Scheme

MANALAPAN, NJ — A Manalapan was arrested in connection to a fraud scheme that between 2014 and 2021 profited $40 million, according to Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams.

Erik Cohen, 40, was changed alongside Joseph Cammarata, 47, of Monmouth Beach and David Punturieri, 41, of Staten Island, NY, with conspiracy to commit multiple counts of fraud in connection with a securities fraud claims scheme.

"These defendants manipulated complicated financial transactions for years in order to steal roughly $40 million,” said Williams. "Cammarata, Cohen and Punturieri committed fraud on top of fraud, filing claims on behalf of clients that didn’t actually exist and doctoring false financial documents to support those fraudulent claims," Williams said.

If convicted, they each face up to 20 years in prison.

The three men worked together at Alpha Plus Recovery, a claims aggregator firm based in Old Bridge.

They used the company to make false and fraudulent claims to the proceeds of securities fraud class action and Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement action settlements.

They falsely claimed that Alpha Plus Recovery clients had bough shares of securities that were the subject of the lawsuits and enforcement actions, according to Williams. In reality, the clients, which were entities actually controlled by the defendants, had not purchased the subject securities.

In order to support those false claims, the three men allegedly transferred the money they stole into accounts that they controled.

"Their alleged scheme has now been uncovered and they will have to answer for their conduct," Williams said.

The case was investigated by the FBI, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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