Two men, one from East Windsor and one from Toms River, have been charged in connection with the theft of federal money, totaling more than $200,000, intended to fuel mail trucks, officials confirmed.
Najar Singh, 50, of Dorchester Drive, was taken into custody Monday after a federal grand jury indicted him on one count of theft of government money, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Katz. Mr. Singh was employed at a Sunoco station on Route 130 in Cranbury.
Warren Ostin, 66, of Toms River, pleaded guilty to the same charge in U.S. District Court in Trenton last week.
Mr. Ostin drove trucks for a company contracted to provide mail transportation for the Postal Service, and he drove primarily out of the processing center on Route 130 in Hamilton.
According to Mr. Katz, the two men were partners in a series of thefts dating as far back as March 2007. He said the Postal Service had a contract with the private trucking firm to deliver mail, and that as part of the agreement, a debit card was assigned to each truck to pay for diesel fuel.
Authorities allege that in a series of thefts, Mr. Ostin took debit cards from trucks he was not driving and had Mr. Singh use them at the Sunoco station as if he had bought fuel. But, according to Mr. Katz, Mr. Singh then gave Mr. Ostin a portion of that money in cash, though Mr. Katz did not say how much of the money went to each man.
The Postal Service notified the trucking company in May that it had exceeded its fuel allocation for this contract year by $212,500.
Mr. Singh is free on $50,000 bail, while Mr. Ostin is awaiting sentencing.