Peter Byron
Wildwood's former mayor has admitted to participating in a state health benefits scheme that left taxpayers with a six-figure bill, according to the state attorney general.
Peter Byron stepped down from office Sept. 21, 2023, nearly two months after pleading guilty to tax fraud. He was sentenced to three years of probation at that time.
But his legal woes were not over.
Around that same time, the Attorney General's Office announced indictments against him, along with two other Wildwood elected officials in the health benefits scheme.
Current Mayor Ernest Troiano Jr. and City Commissioner/Deputy Mayor Steve Mikulski were also named in the 12-court indictment that included charges of official misconduct and theft by unlawful taking. Their charges are still pending.
Byron, 68, admitted fraudulently participating in the State Health Benefits Program, along with failing to identify his outside employment and failing to report income from that outside job on state tax returns, announced Attorney General Matthew Platkin and the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability.
He pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree theft by unlawful taking, along with fourth-degree falsifying or tampering with records and third-degree filing a fraudulent tax return.
Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend a three-year sentence on all charges. Byron also must pay restitution and enter a consent order with a lifetime ban on public office and employment.
“Illegally obtaining benefits is not what holding public office should be about. Rather, it should be about honorably serving the people you represent,” Platkin said. “This was a self-serving, nearly decade-long betrayal of the public’s trust that saddled New Jersey residents with a six-figure bill for the defendant’s personal gain.”
Byron, Troiano, and Mikulski were ineligible to participate in the State Health Benefits Program and receive publicly funded healthcare because they were never full-time employees, which SHBP participation requires. Their hours of work were not fixed at 35 or more per week, they did not receive vacation, sick, or personal days, and they did not maintain a regular schedule. It is alleged, however, that all three fraudulently enrolled in the SHBP anyway and illegally received taxpayer-funded health benefits.
As a result, Wildwood and the SHBP paid nearly $609,000 in premiums and health-benefits claims on behalf of Byron from July 2011 through October 2021.
“As this case demonstrates, the career prosecutors in OPIA’s Corruption Bureau will relentlessly pursue those who abuse public resources and public office and will hold them accountable,” said OPIA Executive Director Drew Skinner.
