Maplewood Man Indicted for Fraud, Theft In Connection with Ponzi Scheme

New Jersey Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced on Feb 11. a Maplewood man who operated a debt adjustment firm was indicted for allegedly defrauding customers by promising to reduce their monthly bills and then stealing their money.

Germaine Theodore, 34, of Maplewood, was indicted on charges of second-degree theft by failure to make require disposition of property received.

According to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, Theodore allegedly claimed he could reduce customers’ bills by 35 percent and told them if they paid 65 percent of their bills and an 8 percent fee to his debt consolidation business, TGC Movement, Inc. TGC reportedly would then arrange for bills to be paid in full. However, Theodore allegedly quickly stopped paying bills for the clients and stole their money instead.

The attorney general said between May 2013 and his arrest on Oct. 15, 2013, Theodore allegedly stole more than $250,000 from more than 200 clients.

After posting bail, Theodore opened a business called Save My Future in Jersey City and engaged in the same type of practices, according to the attorney general. He was arrested again in August 2014 after numerous complaints against Save My Future.

“Theodore is the worst kind of con artist, because he allegedly stole from people who already were struggling financially,” Attorney General Hoffman said. “We allege that he gained the trust of his vulnerable victims by promising them a way out of their financial woes, but then he ruthlessly betrayed them, leaving them even deeper in debt.”

The investigation into Theodore and TGC revealed that TGC would typically pay the initial full amount promised, in order to gain the trust of the client. TGC would often pay clients’ bills in full after their first and second visits to TGC.

However, after gaining clients’ trust, bills would allegedly go unpaid and TGC would pocket the money, the attorney general’s office said. Theodore would allegedly use the money collected from new clients to pay for bills submitted by earlier clients, the AG said.

If convicted of the second-degree charges against him, Theodore faces a possible sentence of five to 10 years in state prison and a criminal fine of up to $150,000.

To read the entire news release, visit the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office website.