(Source: Newsweek.com)
A New Jersey man pleaded guilty to financial theft, money laundering and drug charges on Monday after admitting to taking cash from a Hurricane Sandy victim.

Ocean County prosecutor Bradley Billhimer said yesterday that Robert Brower, 45, of Seaside Heights, acknowledged he had taken more than $750,000 from a Toms River homeowner while working as a contractor on the residence in the wake of the devastating superstorm.

He pleaded guilty to second-degree theft after failing to complete the work. During the course of his contract, cops said Brower repeatedly asked for additional money, which was provided. Some of the funds, the court heard, had been spent on the purchase of "illegal narcotics."

“Brower admitted in court that he left the house unfinished and stole in excess of $750,000 for his own use, including the purchase of illegal narcotics,” prosecutor Billhimer said.

Striking the U.S. in October 2012, New Jersey and New York were two states hit the hardest by Hurricane Sandy, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  

“Storm surge flooded the New York City streets, tunnels and subway lines and cut power in and around the City,” the agency explained in its analysis of the storm. “In New Jersey, more than 346,000 homes were damaged or destroyed and more than two million people lost power.” It cost an estimated $70 billion-worth of damage, second only to 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.

Also on Monday, Brower pleaded guilty to second-degree money laundering after admitting to the theft of more than $225,000 from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

The government funding was intended to be a grant to help repair the Seaside Heights home. But the total amount—$229,395—was never used for that purpose, prosecutors said. In fact, the money was transferred into a bank account he had created using his dead father’s social security number and date of birth. The aim had been to “conceal the proceeds of the theft.”

The money was obtained in February 2016, Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office detective Stephen Shadiack uncovered. Brower had claimed the funding under a Landlord Repair Program.....