Sponsored by:
Senator JIM WHELAN
District 2 (Atlantic)
Assemblywoman ANNETTE QUIJANO
District 20 (Union)
Assemblyman RAJ MUKHERJI
District 33 (Hudson)
Assemblywoman ANGELICA M. JIMENEZ
District 32 (Bergen and Hudson)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblyman Webber
SYNOPSIS
Makes fraudulent use of social security number to collect lottery winnings crime of fourth degree.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning fraudulent use of social security number to collect lottery winnings and supplementing P.L.1970, c.13 (C.5:9-1 et seq.).
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Any person who fraudulently uses a social security number that is not that person’s social security number to collect lottery winnings to evade detection for the purposes of section 1 of P.L.2007, c.106 (C.5:9-13.17), or any other law requiring an offset of indebtedness or liability against lottery winnings, shall be guilty of a crime of the fourth degree.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would make the fraudulent use of a social security number to collect lottery winnings for the purpose of evading debt and liability collection a crime of the fourth degree.
An audit of the Division of the State Lottery of the time period July 1, 2013 to August 31, 2014 conducted by the State Auditor found that in a 13-month period, 680 claimants provided questionable social security numbers when collecting lottery winnings of $600 or more. Forty six of these claimants used social security numbers of deceased individuals with different names than the claimants.
The fraudulent use of social security numbers may prevent appropriate taxes and other debt and liabilities from being collected accurately, and the purpose of this bill is to deter individuals from providing inaccurate information when claiming lottery winnings.