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Article IndexBY ALICIA CRUZ
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
A former U.S. Mint police officer pleaded guilty Thursday in Camden Federal Court to stealing $2.4 million worth of "error" coins and selling them to a coin distributor in California.
William Gray, of North Wildwood, N.J. was a 15-year employee of the Philadelphia Mint at the time of his arrest. Gray admitted that during 2007, he took several small bags to the coining area, where Presidential $1 coins were made.
The minting of the coins was a two-step process, with the initial stamping imprinting the obverse (heads), reverses (tails) images, and a second stamping imprinting the edge lettering. Gray said he took Presidential $1 coins with the missing edge lettering, knowing collectors would deem the coins more valuable because they were “mint errors,” said U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.
Prosecutors say Gray then smuggled the error coins out of the Mint where he shipped them to a coin distributor in California from a Rio Grande post office or the FedEx location in Egg Harbor Township. Gray admitted to receiving approximately $2.4 million for the coins, which he later deposited into his Police and Fire Federal Credit Union account. He also failed to report or under-reported his tax liability from the sale of the coins for tax years 2007 and 2009, which amounted to nearly $801,651.
The theft of government property and tax evasion charges to which Gray pleaded guilty to carries 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The tax evasion charge carries a five year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine. Gray remains free in lieu of a $50,000 bond. His sentencing date is set for Dec. 20. According to a release from the Prosecutor's Office, the U.S. Mint has advised that it has since implemented measures to improve security within all its facilities.Gray is the second Mint police officer to be arrested and charged this year. Another former Mint police officer, Richard Rufo, was charged with defrauding the government by collecting disability benefits to which he was not entitled, said Fishman.Agents of the U.S. Treasury and Department of Labor’s Offices of Inspector General arrested Rufo at his Mt. Laurel home in August 2011, Philly.com reported.
According to the criminal complaint, Rufo, 49, claimed to have injured his back while closing a gate at work in September 2008. He then sought and received federal workers' compensation benefits under the Federal Employees' Compensation Act beginning in September 2008 until his arrest in August.
Mint officials offered Rufo a sedentary position that would only require him to answer phones and use a computer, but he allegedly refused the offer claiming it would be too strenuous. Prosecutors say for almost three years, the defendant drew approximately $173,000 in federal workers compensation while he raked in ‘hundreds of thousands’ in unreported income from a home-based memorabilia business, Rufo told officials in 2009 was simply a part-time gig from which he earned no income, sales commissions, or rates of pay.
According to prosecutors, the truth was, United Safety Supply was a for-profit company located at Rufo's Mount Laurel home. On three separate occasions, the defendant lied on his 1032 Forms indicating that the "part-time" job brought him no income. On two occasions in September 2010, special agents with the Department of Treasury and Office of the Inspector General conducted consensually monitored telephone calls to Rufo wherein he boasted about being so busy with his home-based business that “United Parcel Service trucks have routinely been at his house twice a day for deliveries.”
