Jersey Insurance Adjuster Pleads Guilty in Fraud Scheme

The owner of an insurance adjusting firm has pleaded guilty to mail fraud charges stemming from a scheme to defraud the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and several insurers.

Federal prosecutors say 54-year-old Robert Napolitano, of Clifton, entered his plea Monday. He faces 20 years in prison when he’s sentenced Jan. 8.

Prosecutors say Napolitano instructed insurers whose motorists had damaged turnpike property to send checks made out to his firm, Dawn to Dusk. But instead of forwarding the money to the state authority, he kept some or all of it and gave a share to Gerardo Blasi, a former turnpike authority claims manager.

Blasi pleaded guilty last December to stealing more than $1.5 million from the authority and insurers.

The scheme cost the turnpike authority and insurers at least $900,000.