Broker admits cheating NJ district out of $2.6M

An insurance broker has admitted stealing $2.6 million that a New Jersey school district unknowingly paid for a nonexistent health care program. Frank Cotroneo of Bernards Township pleaded guilty Wednesday to theft by deception and false representation of a government contract. Under a plea bargain with state prosecutors, he faces an eight-year prison sentence and would have to serve four years before becoming eligible for parole. He also will have to make restitution to the Perth Amboy district and pay $2.8 million for a corruption profiting penalty. Prosecutors say the payments, made between November 2003 and July 2009, were supposed to be for health insurance. But the money was diverted to a nonexistent, unauthorized health care program. Perth Amboy schools Superintendent John Rodecker called Cotroneo's actions a "violation of trust."