Man Charged For $57K Missing From Hackettstown Livestock Auction

Hackettstown NJ

05 November, 2021

6:06 PM

Description

WARREN COUNTY, NJ — A man from Annandale has been charged with theft, filing a fraudulent tax return and failure to pay taxes, after $57,000 went missing from the Hackettstown Livestock Auction Cooperative, the Warren County Prosecutor's Office says. Prosecutor James L. Pfeiffer said Friday in a news release that Howard Hoffman, 66 of Annandale, was charged with having the cash found in his own account from livestock auctions between 2016 and 2017. Subscribe to Patch for local news updates to your inbox. (It's free) https://patch.com/subscribe As the auction cooperative's Auction Master, Hoffman was the representative who took payments, responsible for ensuring they made their way into the auction cooperative's bank accounts instead. However, after a look into the accounts, Pfeiffer said, it was determined $56,810 cash was missing, with $56,300 in Hoffman's personal account in that same time period, having deposited it "through a variety of ATMs." New Jersey's Department of Treasury Division of Taxation Office of Criminal Investigation, which joined the inquest, found that Hoffman additionally didn't pay taxes on the monies he funneled to his account, Pfeiffer added. All of the charges are third degree and can carry a sentence upward of five years in state prison, said Pfeiffer. Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: [email protected].