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Through an Aug. 6 release, the United States Attorney’s Office declared that former Philadelphia Traffic Court Judge Robert Mulgrew will serve time for bilking the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). The announcement comes 11 months after the resident of the 1900 block of South Galloway Street put in a guilty plea to committing mail fraud and filing a false tax return. U.S. District Court Judge Darnell C. Jones also ordered the 56-year-old to pay $199,274 in restitution to the aforementioned body and gave him three years of supervised release and a $200 special assessment. The convicted individual also paid $123,314 in restitution, penalties and interest to the IRS.
The verdict stems from an investigation positing that Mulgrew and co-defendant Lorraine Dispaldo, who received an 18-month sentence in November, fraudulently received and misused Pennsylvania state grant funds designed to benefit non-profit groups, U.S. Attorney spokeswoman Patty Hartman said. With respect to Mulgrew, the state designated more than $450,000 to go to the Friends of Dickinson Square, of which he served as vice president, for equipment and materials purchases to maintain the group’s park space, Fourth and Tasker streets, and surrounding neighborhood revitalization.
Last week’s explanation stated Mulgrew misrepresented his intentions and used thousands of dollars to pay his relatives and associates. Authorities revealed he supplied DCED false and misleading information to conceal the actual amount of money that went to his kith and kin contrary to the express purposes of the grant. Mulgrew conceded he received almost $70,000 in grant funds for his own uses and improperly reimbursed himself from Friends funds for thousands of expenditures that he incorrectly claimed the group incurred and for his expenditures not authorized under Friends grants. He did not report the additional income from the fraud scheme on his tax return and claimed false business deductions that improperly reduced his tax liability.
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