Former Mayor Pleads Guilty to Fraudulently Obtaining State Health Benefits

Former Wildwood Mayor Peter J. Byron admits to health benefits fraud and failing to disclose outside income in a plea deal.

Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) have announced that former Wildwood Mayor Peter J. Byron pleaded guilty to fraudulently enrolling in the State Health Benefits Program and failing to disclose his outside employment and income on mandatory state tax returns. Byron, 68, of Wildwood, entered the plea before Superior Court Judge Bernard DeLury, Jr. on September 27, 2024, and subsequently resigned from his municipal position in September 2023.

Byron pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree theft by unlawful taking for the health benefits fraud and to fourth-degree falsifying or tampering with records and third-degree filing a fraudulent tax return. According to the plea agreement, prosecutors have recommended an aggregate sentence of three years in state prison. Byron will also be required to pay restitution and has agreed to a lifetime ban on public office and employment in New Jersey.

“Illegally obtaining benefits is not what holding public office should be about. Rather, it should be about honorably serving the people you represent,” said Attorney General Platkin. “This was a self-serving, nearly decade-long betrayal of the public’s trust that saddled New Jersey residents with a six-figure bill for the defendant’s personal gain.”

“As this case demonstrates, the career prosecutors in OPIA’s Corruption Bureau will relentlessly pursue those who abuse public resources and public office and will hold them accountable,” said OPIA Executive Director Drew Skinner.

The charges stem from a 2023 indictment in which Byron, along with Wildwood Mayor Ernest Troiano Jr. and City Commissioner Steve Mikulski, was accused of fraudulently participating in the State Health Benefits Program despite being ineligible. None of the officials were full-time employees as required for participation in the SHBP, which mandates a fixed work schedule of 35 or more hours per week and includes benefits like vacation, sick leave, or personal days. Despite this, Byron, Troiano, and Mikulski allegedly enrolled in the program and received taxpayer-funded health benefits, resulting in Wildwood and the SHBP paying nearly $609,000 in premiums and claims on behalf of Byron from 2011 to 2021.

In April 2024, Byron faced a separate indictment for allegedly abusing his official position to unlawfully secure employment from an attorney contracted with the City of Wildwood. He failed to disclose this job in his mandatory financial disclosures and omitted state income earned from this employment from his state tax returns for 2017 and 2018.

The investigation revealed that Byron used his position as a city commissioner to secure the job, and he then filed annual financial statements that failed to report the position as a source of income. The omission of income from his state tax returns contributed to the charges of falsifying or tampering with records and filing a fraudulent tax return.

The investigation was conducted by the Official Corruption South unit of the New Jersey State Police, with prosecution handled by OPIA Corruption Bureau Deputy Attorneys General Brian Uzdavinis and Niccole Sandora. The case was overseen by OPIA Corruption Bureau Chief Jeffrey J. Manis, Deputy Bureau Chief Marian Galietta, and OPIA Executive Director Thomas Eicher.

The legal proceedings for defendants Troiano and Mikulski are ongoing, and both remain presumed innocent until proven guilty.