February 8, 2012

Long Beach City Councilman Charged With Stealing More Than $14K in Unemployment Benefits

Grand jury indicts Fagen for never reporting his government job to Labor Department

MINEOLA, N.Y. – Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced today that a Long Beach City councilman has been indicted by a grand jury after stealing more than $14,000 in unemployment compensation by concealing his employment as an elected city official from the state labor department.

In a grand jury indictment handed up yesterday, Michael Fagen, 55, of Long Beach, has been charged with Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, 38 counts of Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree, and one count of Petit Larceny. He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted and will be arraigned at a later date.

Rice said that Fagen began receiving $405 per week in Unemployment Insurance Benefits from the New York State Department of Labor (DOL) on September 24, 2009. In November 2009, Fagen was elected to a four-year term as a city councilman and began receiving a yearly salary of $19,828 upon his inauguration in January 2010.

Fagen failed to disclose his government employment to the DOL, as well as his employment as a salesman for a hotel membership benefits company, and continued to receive undeserved unemployment benefits totaling more than $14,000. After his inauguration, he falsely certified that he was unemployed to the DOL every week.

“The voters of Long Beach trusted Michael Fagen to represent their interests and uphold their community’s values,” Rice said. “Mr. Fagen violated that trust with every unemployment check he cashed and every dollar he stole from the taxpayers of this state.”

The investigation of this case was jointly conducted by the District Attorney’s Office and the New York State Department of Labor’s Office of Special Investigations following notification by the City of Long Beach.

Assistant District Attorney Megan Gallagher of the Government & Consumer Frauds Bureau is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Bureau Chief Marshall Trager. Fagen is represented by Marc Gann, Esq.

The charges are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.