News
Four Men Arrested For Selling Counterfeit Ferry Tickets
By John Burton
FREEHOLD - Four men, three from the two-river area, were arrested last week and charged in connection with printing and selling counterfeit SeaStreak commuter ferry tickets, for ferry service between two county locations and New York City.
Detectives from the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office last Wednesday took into custody Scott M. Dachishen, 46, Monmouth Beach, Matthew A. Gaeta, 37, Little Silver, Christopher P. Uliano, 39, Middletown, and Charles R. Frosbosilo, 42, North Brunswick, charging all four with second degree theft by deception, second degree conspiracy and the fourth degree crimes of forgery and uttering a forged instrument. Authorities also charged Frosbosilo with second degree misconduct by a corporate official, the prosecutor's office said last Wednesday.
The arrests were the outcome of a year-long investigation conducted by the prosecutor's office, brought about when SeaStreak, LLC, the ferry company, contacted law enforcement concerned by the appearance of counterfeit tickets appearing at their locations.
The fake tickets appeared authentic until SeaStreak representatives began looking closer, noticing that the sequential ticket numbers appearing on the counterfeit ones were batches not yet sold by the company, the prosecutor's office said.
Tom Wynne, general counsel for SeaStreak, this week noted it was one of the company's captains who first discovered the numerical discrepancies that eventually revealed the alleged scheme, "and we realized it wasn't one or two books [of tickets]," he said.
SeaStreak, which operates out of terminals in Atlantic Highlands and Highlands, had contracted with a North Brunswick company to supply SeaStreak with the tickets. That company subcontracted with Creative Impressions, Inc., another North Brunswick company, to stamp the tickets with the sequential number runs for the ferry service's operations.
Frosbosilo owns Creative Impressions, according to the prosecutor's office.
When Frosbosilo was given the tickets to be processed with the numbers, he received additional ones, in case of errors in the stamp pressing. Frosbosilo would then deliver the requisite number of tickets to SeaStreak, and then allegedly stamp the remaining tickets and sold them to his three accused cohorts, authorities said.
SeaStreak's charges $625 for a month's worth of tickets, 40 tickets, and Dachishen, Gaeta and Uliano would then allegedly sell them to commuters for about $125 less than the going rate, the prosecutor's office charged.
The prosecutor's office said SeaStreak has estimated it has lost more than $600,000 from the counterfeit ticket operation.
A Superior Court judge in Freehold last week set bail for Frosbosilo at $400,000, Dachishen at $250,000, and $75,000 for Gaeta, with Uliano's bail at $50,000, with a 10 percent option, authorities said.
The Prosecutor's Office investigation did not indicate that the ferry service or any of its employees were connected with the scheme, authorities said. And detectives are continuing their investigation and ask anyone who may be in possession of the illegitimate tickets to contact the prosecutor's office in Freehold.
In light of the revelations, SeaStreak has instituted additional security measures, which commenced last July when the company required commuters to trade in their existing books for the new ones, Wynne explained.
The company is also in the process of beginning a system-wide electronic ticket scanning procedure as another security measure, Wynne said.
