Kabbage PPP loans in Monmouth, Ocean counties under scrutiny

LONG BEACH – Mayor Joe Mancini’s beachfront home on West New Jersey Avenue is hardly the spot for a cattle farm.

That didn’t stop someone from claiming the nonexistent enterprise operates on the property, part of a scam that has cost taxpayers and a federal COVID-related relief fund what is believed to be millions of dollars in fraudulent claims. 

“It’s very typical when the federal government puts out free money, they throw money at people and there is no control,” Mancini — who has lived in the home 42 years, operates no cattle farm, and neither received nor applied for such federal assistance — told the Press.

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Mancini’s house was one of at least 30 Long Beach Island addresses used by fraudsters to dupe the federal government out of money earmarked for loans to COVID-impacted businesses, the mayor said.